Why are there 360° in a Circle?

Saturday, October 3, 2009
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.

2 comments:

melanie905 said...

Good job Joseph! A lot of good facts, although, I'm pretty sure that you could find a little more information than that. But it's still very understandable. Overall, great work (;

xtian 9-05 said...

Great post Joseph, i agree with Melanie there are a lot of good facts in your post.

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