There is such a lot of mathematics associated with clocks! We have already looked at clocks and navigation (Photo #37) and clocks and Roman numerals (Photo #48). Here we have a different question. Time is measured in hours, minutes and seconds, and the minutes and seconds come in bundles of 60. Why is this so?
Well, it is mostly the fault of the ancient Babylonians, who calculated with base 60, much as we use base 10. The fraction 1/60 was called the first minute part, and the fraction 1/602 was called the second minute part. Quite simple really!
