0

A circle is divided into 360 little parts called degrees.

Why or how did they choose that figure? Is there a very strong reason for that or it just a accidentally choose.

Cameron Buie
  • 102,994
Toy
  • 77
  • 5
  • 2
    It used to be 359.9 and they thought, what the hay, lets make it 360. – copper.hat Jun 16 '18 at 03:14
  • 2
    And besides, this is more suited for hsm.stackexchange.com. – Chappers Jun 16 '18 at 03:19
  • 1
    It seems to be a convention that dates back to Babylon. The Babylonians used a base 60 number system. It remains an artifact in our culture 4000 year later (60 minutes, 60 seconds, etc.). 360 has other niceties. It roughly corresponds to one degree per day for astronomical calculations, and it has many factors. – Doug M Jun 16 '18 at 03:20
  • @Chappers: What? – Cameron Buie Jun 16 '18 at 03:20
  • In the end... it is merely a convention that has been adopted, and one that was adopted so long ago that we have almost no way of knowing the entire thought process behind it. It is like asking "why did Shakespeare decide to name the characters 'Romeo and Juliet'?" We can speculate as to the answers and point out patterns that are convenient for such choices, but I would argue we have no real way of knowing the original reason for certain. (Compare this to the reasoning behind the symbol $\forall$ and $\exists$ being used which is documented with reasoning within past century). – JMoravitz Jun 16 '18 at 03:23
  • 1
    @CameronBuie: History of science & mathematics. – copper.hat Jun 16 '18 at 03:25
  • Vague memories of being told the Babylonians thought there were 360 days in a year and somehow conflated a year with a circle. Possibly a myth about a myth. – BruceET Jun 16 '18 at 03:26
  • 1
    @copper.hat: That's so weird. Earlier, I typed that exact URL into my browser, and I got a "page not found" notice (and no attempts to auto-fill). But when I put the words "History...stack exchange," it popped right up. :-? – Cameron Buie Jun 16 '18 at 03:51

0 Answers0