Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: Hey brain Stuff. I'm Lauren Wogelbaum, and today's episode is
Speaker 1: a classic from our previous host, Christian Sagar. And this
Speaker 1: is one that still messes with me all the time.
Speaker 1: No time pun intended. Well, why are there sixty minutes
Speaker 1: in an hour instead of a hundred? Hey, brain stuff,
Speaker 1: it's Christian Sagar in Today's question is why do we
Speaker 1: measure time the way we do? At the first glance,
Speaker 1: it seems like it's a sensible thing until we start
Speaker 1: delving into it. So let's start with a day. What
Speaker 1: is a day. A day is just the amount of
Speaker 1: time that it takes our globe to make a full
Speaker 1: rotation on its axis. Simple, right. But then we divide
Speaker 1: a day into twenty four parts for some reason, and
Speaker 1: then of those twenty four hours, we measure those in
Speaker 1: sixty minute increments for some reason. And then we get
Speaker 1: down to a in it we measure that in terms
Speaker 1: of seconds, again a collection of sixty for some reason.
Speaker 1: But when we get to seconds, we measure those in
Speaker 1: the most popular numerical system today, the decimal system, So
Speaker 1: we talk in terms of a hundredth of a second
Speaker 1: or a millionth of a second. But why how do
Speaker 1: we even start measuring days and dividing them this way. Well,
Speaker 1: the Babylonians were measuring time in what's called a sexy
Speaker 1: gescimal system as opposed to a decimal system. They were
Speaker 1: based on sixty instead of base ten. So earlier we
Speaker 1: said that the decimal system is the most popular, and
Speaker 1: it makes sense, right because the vast majority of human
Speaker 1: beings have ten fingers. It's very easy for the human
Speaker 1: species to count to ten. So why would you use
Speaker 1: something that relies on sixty or why would you use
Speaker 1: something that relies on twelve. Well, when we look at
Speaker 1: the Babylonian system, it actually makes some sense. There is
Speaker 1: a method to this ancient madness. And here's why. If
Speaker 1: we use the base ten idea ten to one hundred,
Speaker 1: the notation that we would have to make to measure
Speaker 1: a specific time of day would become ridiculous very quickly,
Speaker 1: and complicated as well. The thing is that sixty has
Speaker 1: some advantages because sixty, if you just break it down,
Speaker 1: is essentially five times twelve. Then it has both the
Speaker 1: advantages of a ten and twelve as a system. So
Speaker 1: that is why it makes sense for us to use
Speaker 1: sixty seconds in sixty minutes. But the big explanation that
Speaker 1: no one's figured out yet is how this spread around
Speaker 1: the world. Did it happen because it was an accident
Speaker 1: of history? Did it happen because it was really the
Speaker 1: most efficient way that human beings have figured out how
Speaker 1: to measure time. And one last thing, we're all familiar
Speaker 1: with AM and PM right. AM stands for anti meridium
Speaker 1: and PM stands for post meridium. These are terms that
Speaker 1: came about r the Roman era, when they used to
Speaker 1: divide the entire day into two things, just AM and PM.
Speaker 1: This was so important, in fact, that they used to
Speaker 1: have these people whose only job was to wait until
Speaker 1: the sun crossed over so they could run to the
Speaker 1: forum and say, hey, everybody, Okay, it is noon. It
Speaker 1: is officially p M. And the reason why is because
Speaker 1: lawyers were required to show up by noon. Today's episode
Speaker 1: was written by Ben Bollen and produced by Tyler Clang.
Speaker 1: For more on this and lots of other topics, visit
Speaker 1: how Stuff works dot com. Brain Stuff is production of
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