I can not resist stealing from ZNFYRH to start this thread. The original post is in Metaphysics and God. What is the cause of a one meter long object completing a pendulum swing taking in one second?
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ZNFYRH
Volcanic Erupter
Posts: 3,627 We are, actually, measuring matter with our current system of time.
1 second is exactly the length of time it takes a 1 meter long object to complete a pendulum swing.
It is, ironically, an arbitrary length of time and, magically, it takes 86,400 for a complete day.
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Which makes me wonder how the Babylonians came up with a calender, with 24 hour days, divided by 60 minutes? What did they know to come up with this calender?
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Numbers in Ancient Babylon
The Babylonians had a calendar, with the days divided into 24 hours, where each hour was divided into 60 minutes, and each minute was divided into 60 seconds. This form of counting survived for 4000 years and is still used today all over the world.
Ancient Babylonians used a what's called a sexigesimal (or base 60) number system as opposed to the base 10 system used today. In a base 60 system, all the numbers are categorized in groups of 60s. This means that whenever a unit of a number is moved to the left, its value increases by a factor of 60.
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