Why 360?

Sunday, October 4, 2009
Why, why, why is a full circle called 360 degrees? Well.. It all started with the Babylonians.

For the Babylonians, counting was based on a
Sexagesimal System, or a base of 60. The Babylonians would have symbols for the numbers 1 t0 59, and when they got up to 60, they would combine those symbols to make the number 60.

Here is what the symbols looked like:















Another reason why we call a full circle 360 degrees is because the Babylonians had a calendar that consisted of 360 days. The earth takes about 360 days to rotate all around the sun.
























ALSO, the number 360 is very convenient. The number 360 is able to be divided by a lot of different numbers such as 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 12, and 15.

I hope you guys learned something from my blog post! If you see any errors or have any suggestions, there's a comment button waiting for you! Thanks for reading~!

3 comments:

melanie905 said...

Nice work Abby! I liked your pictures and the way you explained everything. Although, like I said about Melissa post, you should use font colours that stand out more. Believe me, it really looks more interesting and more appealing to readers. But overall, great job!

xtian 9-05 said...

Great post Abby, and I also agree with Melanie you could use font colors to make the important words stand out and make it appealing.great job on the overall.

Lissa 9-05 said...

GREAT JOB ABBY ! Hi (: Well, anyways, I like your pictures and you should put more colours on your post (:

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