On 2006-05-09, Thomas Bartkus <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >>> Even base 60 makes more sense if you like it when a lot of >>> divisions come out nice and even. >> >> Did they actually have 60 unique number symbols and use >> place-weighting in a manner similar to the arabic/indian >> system we use? > > I don't know.
I googled around a while last night, and they ahd sort of a hybrid notation. The Sumerians started withindividual "tic marks" up to 9, and symbols for 10, 60, 600, 3600 and so on. That evolved into the Babylonian base-60 position-weighted system (without a zero symbol) that used only the 1 symbol and the 10 symbol. http://it.stlawu.edu/%7Edmelvill/mesomath/sumerian.html http://www.ancientscripts.com/sumerian.html http://www-gap.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/HistTopics/Babylonian_numerals.html > I do know that we have 360 degrees in a circle And 60 seconds in a minute, 60 minutes in a hour (for both time and angles), and 60 minutes in a degree. -- Grant Edwards grante Yow! PARDON me, am I at speaking ENGLISH? visi.com -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
