Santosh Verma/Millennium Images, UK
Why are there 60 seconds in a minute and 60 minutes in an hour? Who decided on this and when? (continued)
Duncan Boyd
Burlington, Ontario, Canada
Previous answers have sensibly referred to the Sumerian base-12 and Babylonian base-60 numerical systems, but I am surprised no one has noted that the second corresponds to a human’s typical resting heart rate. Using the pulse as a timer would have complemented the top-down approaches used to divide the day into hours and provided a useful means to track brief time periods. Or maybe it is just a coincidence.
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