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Science (non-SETI) :
Why?
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Author | Message |
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William Rothamel Send message Joined: 25 Oct 06 Posts: 3756 Credit: 1,999,735 RAC: 4 |
Who decided that we would have 90 degrees in a right angle, therefore 360 degrees in a circle. I think we inherited this from the Babylonians-Somehow they had a base 60 imbedded in their numbering schemes. |
Clyde C. Phillips, III Send message Joined: 2 Aug 00 Posts: 1851 Credit: 5,955,047 RAC: 0 |
Maybe somebody made degrees based on how far the Sun moves through the stars each day of the year. Somehow he/she rounded off 365 to 360 for a rounder number. |
Sarge Send message Joined: 25 Aug 99 Posts: 12273 Credit: 8,569,109 RAC: 79 |
William and Clyde have made some plausible suggestions. And, dividing by 2, 3, 4 or 5 is typical. (Even 6, as it is 2 times 3.) So, we can see where 60 and 90 can come from this. Capitalize on this good fortune, one word can bring you round ... changes. |
ML1 Send message Joined: 25 Nov 01 Posts: 20257 Credit: 7,508,002 RAC: 20 |
... Wouldn't it have made more sense to have had 100 degrees? Look up gradians. Keep searchin', Martin See new freedom: Mageia Linux Take a look for yourself: Linux Format The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3) |
Odysseus Send message Joined: 26 Jul 99 Posts: 1808 Credit: 6,701,347 RAC: 6 |
Look up gradians. The only time I ever encountered gradians ‘in the wild’ was on a summer job as a geological field assistant; we used them for our dip & strike measurements. SI trivia: the metre was originally intended to be the distance on the Earth’s surface represented by 1/100,000 grad of latitude, just as the nautical mile is based on the minute of latitude. The Canadian Forces use a compatible angular measure: 1 mil = 1/6400 circle = 1/16 grad. It gets its name from the fact that an object that subtends 1 mil of arc is about one thousandth as large as it is distantâ€â€ideally the angle would be 1 milliradian = 1/6283 circle, but of course 1/6400 (= 0.982 mrad) works much better with the traditional compass points. |
Scary Capitalist Send message Joined: 21 May 01 Posts: 7404 Credit: 97,085 RAC: 0 |
Maybe somebody made degrees based on how far the Sun moves through the stars each day of the year. Somehow he/she rounded off 365 to 360 for a rounder number. That's been my understanding. Seems I saw something about it many years ago on an educational tv show. Founder of BOINC team Objectivists. Oh the humanity! Rational people crunching data! I did NOT authorize this belly writing! |
Odysseus Send message Joined: 26 Jul 99 Posts: 1808 Credit: 6,701,347 RAC: 6 |
Maybe somebody made degrees based on how far the Sun moves through the stars each day of the year. Somehow he/she rounded off 365 to 360 for a rounder number. There’s an ancient Egyptian myth that says that the year originally had 360 days; the additional five were made out of light borrowed from the Moon, which is why the latter is dark some of the time … |
Scary Capitalist Send message Joined: 21 May 01 Posts: 7404 Credit: 97,085 RAC: 0 |
Maybe somebody made degrees based on how far the Sun moves through the stars each day of the year. Somehow he/she rounded off 365 to 360 for a rounder number. Sounds good. Let's go with that story and everyone agree to stick to it. :-) Founder of BOINC team Objectivists. Oh the humanity! Rational people crunching data! I did NOT authorize this belly writing! |
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