Stefan_S_from_H@piefed.zip to Showerthoughts@lemmy.worldEnglish · 19 hours agoWhoever invented the 12-hour clock never doubted that people will always know if it's day or nightmessage-squaremessage-square67fedilinkarrow-up1172arrow-down12
arrow-up1170arrow-down1message-squareWhoever invented the 12-hour clock never doubted that people will always know if it's day or nightStefan_S_from_H@piefed.zip to Showerthoughts@lemmy.worldEnglish · 19 hours agomessage-square67fedilink
minus-squareThe_Decryptor@aussie.zonelinkfedilinkEnglisharrow-up1·13 hours ago More like the people who invented a lot of shit used base 12. I thought we got it from the Babylonians, turns out we actually got it from the Ancient Egyptians. At the rise of the star Sirius just before sunrise, which occurred around the all-important annual flooding of the Nile, 12 decans could be seen spanning the heavens. The cosmic significance the Egyptians placed in the 12 decans led them to develop a system in which each interval of darkness (and later, each interval of daylight) was divided into a dozen equal parts. Nope, it’s just down to how many “decans” you could see at any one point during the night.
I thought we got it from the Babylonians, turns out we actually got it from the Ancient Egyptians.
Nope, it’s just down to how many “decans” you could see at any one point during the night.