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The problem is base 10 is a terrible base for any unit that needs to be divided. It’s an arbitrary base with no positives based on our fingers. No reasonable species would have picked base 12 when base 12 is so much better and so close. 10 can’t be evenly divided into 3 or 4 parts. 60 minutes in 3 parts is 20 minutes. 100 minutes in 3 parts is 33.3333 minutes

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexagesimal




True. And having 7 days per week is majorly impractical, also for reasons of divisibility. With 7 being prime, it's impossible to do things every other day or every three days without being left with a remainder.



I don't think I've genuinely laughed at an internet conversation like this in such a long time. Thanks for that. I should join a forum again.


It's a shame the internet has pinned this on bodybuilders just because of the URL. TheJosh has a progress photo on his profile - he must be very deep into an offseason. bodybuilding.com is a general exercise forum and is infamous for the trolling on its misc board.


What a great conversation. How did you find those posts from 15 years ago? XD


Just as bad as having 31 days a month, for randomly chosen months. If any periods of time need to fixed it's surely weeks and months. How about 5 day weeks (3 working, 2 not - and yes, therefore 10-day "fort"nights) and scrap months altogether...


Wouldn't that make sense in a context where the useful number of 6 counts the days reserved for the affairs of mankind, and the seventh was an extra day reserved for rest or worship? I.e. the background of our 7 day week


I'm sure that's religious revisionism (just like the Christmas holiday). Like so many time-based things, the 7-day week comes from the cycles of the Moon, and goes back at least as far as the Babylonians.


Right, religious zealots have been ever revising the story of human history, which has been mostly secular peoples that practiced empiricism and appreciated astronomical phenomena as interesting but did not take them as divine.


But at least 7 days per week resonates approximately with the lunar orbit.


clearly we need to reposition the moon


Or genetically engineer ourselves to have a different number of fingers


I need to divide my 12 into 9 parts. What do I do now?


12 hours / 9 = 80 mins. 12 mins / 9 = 80 secs. That's the point. And yes, Base 12 is superior to Base10 for this specific reason. But only for this use case.




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