Base60numerojä

Base60numerojä refers to a numeral system with a base of 60. This system, also known as sexagesimal, was historically used by the ancient Babylonians. Unlike our modern decimal system which uses ten digits (0-9), a base-60 system requires sixty distinct symbols to represent values. In practice, the Babylonians often used a combination of cuneiform wedge shapes to represent these symbols, employing a sub-base of 10 for digits within each place value. For example, the number 2 would be represented by two wedges, and the number 12 by a wedge for ten and two wedges for two.

The primary advantage of a base-60 system is its divisibility. Sixty has many divisors (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 10, 12, 15, 20, 30, 60), which makes calculations involving fractions and divisions much simpler. This property is likely why sexagesimal notation has survived in modern measurements of time and angles. We still divide an hour into 60 minutes and a minute into 60 seconds, and a circle is divided into 360 degrees (which is 6 times 60). While the Babylonians developed a fully functional base-60 system, its complexity meant it was never universally adopted like the decimal system. Modern mathematical and computational systems overwhelmingly rely on the base-10 (decimal) or base-2 (binary) systems.