Why 360?

Why do you think that people use the number 360 as the number for a full circle? It wasn't just picked at random. There are many reasons that people may have picked 360.

One of them is that the ancient Babylonians used a sexagesimal number system. Sexagesimal means having a base of sixty. Well, the Babylonians used the number 60 as their base number, whereas we use the number 10. They realized that the earth took approximately 360 days to rotate (one year). The astronomers of the time noticed that the celestial pole (imaginary axis line) seemed to advance in a circle by 1-360th every day (one degree). That is one reason why we use 360 as our circle number.

Another reason that 360 may have been used is that the number 360 has 24 divisors, including every number from 1 to 10 except 7 and 12, 15, 18, 20, 24, 30, 36, 40, 45, 60, 72, 90, 120, 180, and 360. If the degrees in a circle were to be divisible by every number from 1-10, there would be 2520 degrees in a circle, which is a much more complicated number than 360, and it would get really confusing to divide 2520 by 7 or something like that.

Thanks for reading my post! I hope that it helped at least someone to understand why we use 360 as our full circle number.
Please comment!!!!

Why is a 360, 360?

Have you aver wondered why is a 360 a full circle, I mean it could also be like 180 or 60 degrees so why is it 360?

Our "numbering" system for time and angles originally came from the Babylonians. They had a base number system of 60. One of the reasons is that 60 is divisible by 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 10 and 12 and etc.

This divisibility means that you don't have to deal with fractions as much (a very difficult thing to do with a non decimal system - think about doing decimal calculations using Roman numerals!!)

So why 360? Well it's not very hard because 6 x 60 = 360.



Another theory was there is more to this than the six sixes for the 360 fromthe Babylonians. It has to do with Claudius Ptolemy (100-170 AD), who divided the circle into 360 parts for his sine table. He actually used the length of the chord for each central angle in steps of 1/2 degree in a circle of radius 60 rather than sines.

Why is a Circle 360 Degrees?

A circle is 360 degrees because....
the Babylonians used a base 60 number system. It seems clear that degrees were devised by ancient astronomers who noticed that the sun moved one degree each day (about our fixed Earth) past the stars that appeared to be fixed to an external heavenly sphere. It took one month for the sun to move the 30 degrees from one sign of the Zodiac to the next.

Since there are really 365 days in a year (not 360) why isn't a degree defined to be 1/365 of a circle instead of the official 1/360? I have seen several explanations, most not very convincing. My current favorite explanation is that the number 360 is a compromise between the solar year of about 365.25 days and the lunar year (consisting of 12 months of 29.5 days each) of about 354.37 days. Of course the months fit well with the Zodiac, which played an important role in their astronomy.

Sorry if this wasn't really that helpful, I got this from a site and this was the best one I got.
Source: http://mathcentral.uregina.ca/QQ/database/qq.09.96/kredo1.html

The questions are Why 360? and Why is 360 a full circle? Why not like the other numbers like 10 or 100?

-The Babylonians based their numbering system on base 60. This numbering system is called Sexagesimal System.


-The Babylonians beleived that the earth rotates 1 degree per day and realized that it takes 36o days (based on the Babylonian calendar) to make a one full earth year(one full rotation of the earth aroundn the sun). This way of thinking made sense to them that a full rotation is equal to 360 degrees .





(This shows the Earth's rotation around the sun)

-Another thing about 360 is that it is divisible to many numbers like 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 12, 15, 18, 20, 24, 30, 36, 40, 45, 60, 72, 90, 120, 180, and 360.

Why 360°?

360°

Have you ever thought about why a circle has 360 degrees? Well there was a group of people called the Babylonians. While we use 10 nowadays I bet your wondering what they use. Well The Babylonians used a number system with the base number of 60. The number system is called the sexagesimal system. The Babylonians learned that the earth rotates about 1 degree per day. Their calendar had 360 days, which is pretty close to 365 (our calendar). The reason they chose 360 was so they could track the time of year. They were 5.25 days off, but they were close.

A full circle is 360°. It is broken up into 60 parts. One part would be 1/60.

One of the cool things about 360 is that it is divisible by 24 numbers. They are

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 12, 15, 18, 20, 24, 30, 36, 40, 45, 60, 72, 90, 120, 180, and 360.
That makes it a lot easier to work with.

I hope you learned a bit from this. Comment if you want.

Why 360?

Why 360?

Well long, long, long ago, before we were born the Sumerians, then later the Babylonians had a number system called sexagesimal. (you can call it as a base of 60 numeral system)Instead of our numeral system base 10, they used base 60. Now why 360? Well, did you notice that the number of days in a year,365 is close to 360? The Babylonians noticed that celestial pole moved everyday; about one degree of a circle(1/360). So they used 360 in their calander then 365 like ours. So maybe thats why they chose 360.

Oh! also its because it has so many divisible numbers! In fact 24 divisors!(isn't that a lot?)

360 is divisible by...

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 12, 15, 18, 20, 24, 30, 36, 40, 45, 60, 72, 90, 120, 180, and 360.

Why not 100?

Hello everyone! Nicky here to tell you about a special little number. This number is 360. You might recognize it as the number of degrees in a circle. But I bet you've always wondered: Why 360 and not something easy, like 100? Well, the answer lies within the story of the Babylonians...

You see, the Sumerians (and later the Babylonians) used a Sexagesimal system when it came to numbers... No this isn't some sort of foul language, it just means their number system was based on the number 60. Now, 60 goes into 360 right? But that still doesn't answer why the 60. However, the following will. If you take a look at our calendar (of 365 days) you'll see that it's really close to 360, now isn't it? That's how the Babylonians told time. They noticed that the Sun moved about 1 degree everyday, and around 360 every year. They also realized that every year the sun goes around a complete circle. So, when the made circles, they made them with 360 degrees.

So, what are the mathematical "pluses" of 360? Well, 360 has 24 factors whereas 100 only has 9. This makes for a good number. So, there you go. Now you know why there's 360 degrees in a circle. The simple answer being that the Babylonians said so... The true answer being that it just works.

Why 360?

Did you notice how a circle has 360 degrees and not 100? If you haven't, then wow...

Well, now that you for sure noticed, I'll tell you. The people to blame for having 360 degrees in a circle are the Babylonians.

See, a long time ago, the Babylonians used a number system with a base of 60. It's called a sexagesimal system. Big word, I know. Our base is 10, by the way.

The point is that the Babylonians had 360 days in their calendar. They thought that the Earth took 360 days to rotate around the Sun in a circle. (I just gave you a really big hint just now.) Therefore, when they decided how many degrees a circle should have, they chose 360.

Also, 360 has a lot of factors. They're 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 12, 15, 18, 20, 24, 30, 36, 40, 45, 60, 72, 90, 120, 180 and 360 . Trust me, the last thing you want to do is be told to measure out 1/3 of a circle and have to look for 33.333333 and so on degrees from your 100 degree protractor.

Why 360?

The number of degrees in a circle is 360. Haven't you guys ever wondered why? Well the answer to that dates back to a long time ago. About the time of the Babylonians. It's a somewhat complicated method, but it will be explained simpler in this post. This is only one of the explanations, as there is many more out there. Have a look at other posts for different theories.

Anyways, the Babylonians were very smart people. They had and used a sexagesimal numeral system. They used 60 as their base number, whereas we use 10. The Babylonians were smart enough to figure out that 360 was close enough to a full year. They were only 5.25 days off. Now here's where it gets a bit complicated. They knew the sun went around the earth in a circle (it doesn't, it goes around in an eclipse [oval shape]) and they knew it takes 360 days for that to happen. All they had to do now, was put those 2 together. You have a circle, and you have 360 days to complete it, make sense? Look at this picture to the right, imagine each day being 1 degree. The sun goes around moves around the earth about 1 degree per day. When I read that, I understood why the number 360 was used.


Why not 360? 360 is a great number. Did you know it has an astonishing 24 factors? Imagine if you used the number 100 for a circle. The only factors you would have there are 1, 2, 4, 5, 10, 20, 25, 50, and 100. Now let's look at the number 360. I'll list them all, but be prepared for a mouthful of numbers. The factors are, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 12, 15, 18, 20, 24, 30, 36, 40, 45, 60, 72, 90, 120, 180, and 360. Talk about a great number. That's all that there is too it. It's one of the many theories of why 360 was chosen. And why not? Hope this post helps a bunch, be sure to comment and tell me if I missed anything or if I helped you out.

Why 360?

Have you ever wondered why a circle has 360 degrees? I didn't. But its interesting to learn why.

It all started with the Babylonians. You see, they used a number system with a base of 60, instead of using a base of 10 like we do. That system is called the sexagesimal system.

They realized that it took approximately 360 days for the sun to circle the earth. At least that's what they thought. We now know it takes 365.25 days for the earth to circle the sun, but that's beside the point... The Babylonian calendar had 360 days in a year, which is fairly close to 365. They divided their calendar into 360 degrees to keep track of daily passage of the sun's journey.







You know that in a full circle there are 360 degrees. But did you know that each degree is split into 60 parts, 1/60 of a degree? They are called minutes. Minutes are also split into 60 parts called seconds. Every second is 1/60 of a minute.

When you think about it, the way we measure time is also divided into 60's. 60 seconds in a minute, 60 minutes in an hour.

360 also has a lot of factors; 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 12, 15, 18, 20, 24, 30, 36, just to name a few. That makes it easier to work with.

Well, I hope you learned something form my post. Thanks for reading. Please comment :D

Why 360?

So the big question is why 360? Well you can ask the Babylonians. They used a Sexagesimal system. A Sexagesimal system is a numeral system with 60 as the base instead of 10, which we now use. We go up to 9 and add a 1 in front of 0. They went up to 59 and added a 6 in front of a zero. Also we use 60 a lot. 60 seconds per minute and 60 minutes in a hour.

The Babylonians made a calender based on 360 days, because they believed the earth made a complete rotation in 360 days. In result came 360 degrees making a full circle.

Also 360 is divisible by 24 numbers. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 12, 15, 18, 20, 24, 30, 36, 40, 45, 60, 72, 90, 120, 180, and of course 360.

That's my post on why 360. I hope it explained everything you need to know to understand WHY 360?!

Why 360?

Have you ever wondered why does a circle have 360 degrees? Well I haven't really thought about it, I just went with it until the question came up in math class and then I found out.

It started out with the Babylonians and they had a base 60 number system. We use this base 60 number system in our time like 60 minutes in an hour and 60 seconds in a minute. But we have a base 10 number system. The base 60 system is called the Sexagesimal system. The Babylonians took their base and multiplied it by 6. And they came up with 360.





















360 was very close to how many days are in a year. There are actually 365.25 days in a year. The Babylonians had a calendar that consisted of 360 days a year. The Babylonians did research and watched the sky and the sun and they realized that it took at least 360 days to go though the whole process. They were very close but they thought the Sun went around the earth in 360 days. But the earth goes around the sun in 365 days.

There are 360 different sunset points of entry on the horizon during a calendar year (to the naked eye). 90 points / days between Winter Solstice to Equinox, Equinox to Summer Solstice, Summer Solstice to Equinox and then Equinox to Winter Solstice. And that is basically all 4 seasons.






















The base 60 system is also very common and is a common number too. Many numbers go into 60. Like the numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 10, 12, 15, 20, 24, 30, and 60.

The numbers from the base 60 number system looks like this.

(sorry if the picture is blurry just go to this site if you cannot see)

Thanks for reading my post! I hope you understand why now! Please leave a comment.

Why 360?

Why do we use the number 360 when we refer to a circle, why not 400 or 10?
Well I did some research and found out it was the Babylonians!! The Babylonians used a system called the sexagesimal system, so instead of using the base of 10, like we do they used a base of 60.

This has many advantages as it can be divided by a lot of factors unlike 10. The base of 10 only has factors of (1,2,5,10) but 360 has factors of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 12, 15, 18, 20, 24, 30, 36, 40, 45, 60, 72, 90, 120, 180, and 360. So you now know why we use 360 degrees for a circle, but there is also other examples, like we have 60 minutes in an hour, and 60 seconds in a minute. But the most common example is the calendar. Earth's rotation around the earth is approximately 360 days (rotation over the sun)

The Babylonians had 360 days in a year, but in the present we now have 365 days (more accurate). Thats why every few hundred years, summer would line up to winter, meaning the calendar would be all messed up.
I hope you learned something and please comment!!

Why 360?

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~!

Why 360?

Do you know why 360 degrees is a full circle? The reason why we use the number 360 is because it started with the Babylonians.





Now in the present, we use the base of 10, when once in the past, the Babylonians used the base of 60. That system that they used was called the Sexogonal System. The Babylonian also made a calendar that had 360 days because they believed that the earth has a full rotation after every 360 days.







Also, if you haven't noticed, 360 is a very handy number. It can be divided by alot of numbers. It has alot of factors such as: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 12, 15, 18, 20, 24, 30, 36, 40, 45, 60, 72, 90, 120, 180, 360.

I hope you guys learnt something number about why we use the number 360. Please comment if you would like to add something to my post (:

Why 360?

Lots of people ask the same question. Why 360 degrees in a circle? Well it all started with the Babylonians. They used a base of 60, rather then 10 like we do. This system was called the Sexogonal System.

Another reason they used 360, was because 360 is divisible by A LOT of numbers for example 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 12, 15, 18, 20, 24, 30 and more. The Babylonians calender also was made up of 360 days, when the earth makes a complete rotation, a circle, so to the Babylonians it made sense for a circle to be 360 degrees.

So I hope that my post helped you understand 360. If I missed anything please comment.

Why use 360?

Most of us have been wondering why we use 360 degrees for a full circle. Well, blame the Babylonians. Just kidding! The Babylonians used 60 as their base. While, we, use 10 as our base. So, what the Babylonians did is that they multiplied their base (60) by 6 (the number of sides in a hexagon). This system is called the sexagesimal system.


I would say that we use 360 because, it has a lot of advantages. Like for example, it's one of the few numbers that have many factors. These are all the factors:1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 12, 15, 18, 20, 24, 30, 36, 40, 45, 60, 72, 90, 120, 180, 360 . Having many factors makes 360 a very nice unit to divide a circle into equal parts. Also, we use it in calendars, and fractions. 360 is a very popular number.
This is an example: earth's revolution around the sun is approximately 360 days (Babylonians had 360 days a year).





So, I hope you understand a bit better of why we use 360. If I missed anything, or if you have any suggestions, fell free to comment. :)

Why 360°?

Why 360° Degrees

Hello to rooms 9-05 and 9-06,

Today the question I am answering is why 360° Degrees? Why not another number you ask? Well the answer to that question is very simple.

The main reasons for choosing the number 360 are

The Babylonians created their number system called the sexagesmal number system. Which uses a base of 60 instead of what we use now, which is a base of 10.



Another reason for picking the number 360 is that it have many divisors, actually it has 24. They are 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 12, 15, 18, 20, 24, 30, 36, 40, 45, 60, 72, 90, 120, 180, and 360. including 1 and its self. They chose this number because they thought if it had a lot divisors then it would work, instead of using a base of 10 which only has 4.(1,2,5,10)

360 is also a good number to divide a circle into equal parts which why it was picked. If you look around theirs a lot of example of 360, Time: 60 min. in a hour, the one everyone knows the best, the calender: which had 360 days in a year, where the earth would rotate around the sun. Making one full year. But before we added 5 for days to the calender so we could be more accurate, the Babylonians stayed with 360.


That is why I think the number 360 was chosen. Thanks for reading my explanation on why 360 was picked!
Please leave comments, because nobody can be perfect.

Why are there 360° in a Circle?

Why 360°?

Dear rooms 9-05 and 9-06,

we have 360° in a circle because of 3 main reasons.

1) The Babylonians used a sexagesmal number system. That means that instead of using a base of 10, they used a base of 60. We go up to 9 and then we put a 1 followed by a 0 (10). A base of 60 meant that they would go up to out so called "59", then the would combine their numbers to make a "60".

2) 360 is a very easy number to divide. There are 24 factors for the number 360. Those numbers include 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 12, 15, 18, 20, 24, 30, 36, 40, 45, 60, 72, 90, 120, 180, and 360.

3) Did you notice that there are about 360 days in a year? Meaning that it takes about 360 days for Earth to make a full rotation (orbit) around the Sun. Remember, the Babylonians had 360 day years.

I hope you understood my post and it helped. I have one thing for you to think about. Did you ever notice that there are 60 seconds in a minute and 60 minutes in an hour? 24 hours in a day? 12 months in a year? Almost everything is a factor of 360. Please comment if I missed anything or if you have any ideas.

Why 360°?

Hello 9-05 and 9-06! So Mr. B assigned 9-05 (because we're going to be the class) to make a post explaining to 9-06 why we use 360 all the time. I hope this short and concise post will be helpful to you!

First of all, 360 is a very round and friendly number to use. It's divisible by a lot of numbers (24 to be exact). Secondly, the Babylonians were devoted to geometric figures, and they based their number system on the number 60 rather than 10 like we usually do. This number system is called the Sexogonal System. Their calendar even had 360 days and their complete cycle was divided up into 360 units. We have adapted from the Babylonians because our clocks have 60 minutes and each minute is 60 seconds.

Here is an example of the Babylonian's number system.

The Babylonians thought that there were approximately 360 days in a calendar, since the Earth rotated about 1 degree around the Sun per day. So, when the Earth makes a full rotation around the Sun that would be a full circle. That's why the Babylonians used 360 to represent a full circle. Our place value is ones (1) tens (10) hundreds (100) thousands (1000) etc. because our number system is based on 10. As mentioned previously, Babylonians used the Sexagismal system. In the chart above, you can see all the symbols for each number character. I think that the 59 symbol and the 1 symbol would be the representative for the number 60, or perhaps the 50 symbol and the 10 symbol would be the representative for 60. I am not sure, because of the sites I've encountered, they were unclear about this. I think that the next place value would be something like 120 and it could be a combination of two 50 symbols and two 10 symbols or a 20 symbol, which is actually two 10 symbols. I think that an easier way to write these numerals using our number system would be 50 and 10 for 60. 50 and 50 for 100, etc.
So that is basically why we use 360̊̊ to describe a full circle. If I've missed anything, feel free to comment!

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