Why are there 360º in a circle?

Hello!,
I know this is probably a silly question for you,
but why are there 360º in a circle?, has it anything
to do with astronomy?

Thanks,

Mixi

"m" wrote in message
oups.com...
Hello!,
I know this is probably a silly question for you,
but why are there 360º in a circle?, has it anything
to do with astronomy?

Thanks,

Mixi



It is said to be an approximation of the number of days in the year (a
circle being one cycle of the seasons or one year)

SteveTBM

m nous a donc écrit :

Hello!,
I know this is probably a silly question for you,
but why are there 360º in a circle?, has it anything
to do with astronomy?

I suppose that it's coming from the old epoch of Sumer, where they used to
calculate with a base 60, instead of 10 like us.

--
Norbert. (no X for the answer)
======================================
knowing the universe - stellar and galaxies evolution
http://nrumiano.free.fr
images of the sky http://images.ciel.free.fr
======================================

"m" wrote in
ups.com:


Norbert wrote:-

I suppose that it's coming from the old epoch of Sumer, where they
used to calculate with a base 60, instead of 10 like us.

Thank You !, I thought so, but had to check it to make sure!

Which raises (not "begs"; meejah types please note) the question;

why did they divide it into 6? If they did, of course, but starting from a
base 60 it seems logical.

This may be an old wives tale, but I was told it's counting on fingers -
the thumb of one hand ticks off each finger joint to give 12, and the other
fingers tally to 5 to give a count of 60. Well, at least you don't have to
take your socks off

mike

mike nous a donc écrit :

"m" wrote in
ups.com:


Norbert wrote:-

I suppose that it's coming from the old epoch of Sumer, where they
used to calculate with a base 60, instead of 10 like us.

Thank You !, I thought so, but had to check it to make sure!

Which raises (not "begs"; meejah types please note) the question;

why did they divide it into 6? If they did, of course, but starting
from a base 60 it seems logical.

In fact, it seems that Sumerian people used a complex system based upon 60,
10 and 6. If you want to perform calculations only with a base 60, you must
have 60 names for the "digits". So, to simplify a bit, they also used base
10 and base 6.

This may be an old wives tale, but I was told it's counting on
fingers - the thumb of one hand ticks off each finger joint to give
12, and the other fingers tally to 5 to give a count of 60. Well, at
least you don't have to take your socks off


--
Norbert. (no X for the answer)
======================================
knowing the universe - stellar and galaxies evolution
http://nrumiano.free.fr
images of the sky http://images.ciel.free.fr
======================================

On 3 Jul 2006 17:53:16 GMT, in uk.sci.astronomy , mike
wrote:

Which raises (not "begs"; meejah types please note) the question;

why did they divide it into 6?

You can count to six with one hand.

This may be an old wives tale,

Nope.
--
Mark McIntyre

tudor wrote:
m wrote:

but why are there 360º in a circle?, has it anything to do with astronomy?

I believe that it is tied in to the sidereal day.

Please go to my web site at www.storm.ca/~tjones/sidereal.html for my
views.

It is a short article and will only tyake a couple of minutes to read.

Since we are talking about opinions (and that is all they can be) here
is mine:

When Noah was counting off the weeks and months, he got thirty days for
each. I can't remember how to work it out but it's in the narrative at
Genesis 7 vss 24 and etc., "And the waters continued overwhelming the
earth a hundred and fifty days."

Obviously they had some idea of constellations in those days. Three
hundred and sixty is a better number to juggle with if you have no
computer than the use of decimals. Bear in mind that the shorthand for
circumscribing a circle or hemisphere is 60 degrees = the radius. (More
accurately than the use of pi.)

But why call the angle 60 rather than 50 or 10?

Suppose we used a ten day week and a three week month or whatever.
There are a number of ways thing could have gone. The Germans used a
400 degree circle in WW 2. It never caught on. Perhaps because more
number divide fairly well into 360 for the purposes of astrology (as
astronomy was known in those days?)

Decimal systems were not unknown. 10 was seen as completeness yet 6 was
considered a perfect number for men. The law of thirds and sixes
applies throughout the geometry of architecture and seems to have
always done so.

There would be a zero in that system as in no sheep one sheep two
sheeps three sheeps etc. But there is no zero on the circumfrence odf a
circle.

(Perhaps someone could help me out here?

What year is this one:
http://sunearth.gsfc.nasa.gov/eclips...ases-0099.html
(Bottom of the page.)

Year New Moon First Quarter Full Moon Last
Quarter Delta T


0
Jan 3 07:42 Jan 9 23:04 t Jan
17 05:48 02h56m
Jan 25 09:45 Feb 1 16:17 Feb 8 10:56 Feb 16
01:53
Feb 24 00:26 Mar 1 23:00 Mar 8 23:15 Mar 16
21:36
Mar 24 11:47 Mar 31 05:03 Apr 7 12:15 Apr 15
15:24
Apr 22 20:30 Apr 29 11:35 May 7 02:12 May 15
06:15
May 22 03:44 May 28 19:35 Jun 5 17:08 Jun 13
17:57
Jun 20 10:34 P Jun 27 05:58 Jul 5 08:35 t Jul 13
02:59
Jul 19 17:57 P Jul 26 19:29 Aug 3 23:47 Aug 11
10:18
Aug 18 02:43 Aug 25 12:27 Sep 2 14:05 Sep 9
16:58
Sep 16 13:35 Sep 24 08:19 Oct 2 03:17 Oct 9
00:02
Oct 16 03:15 Oct 24 05:27 Oct 31 15:38 Nov 7
08:27
Nov 14 20:01 Nov 23 01:40 Nov 30 03:23 Dec 6
19:00
Dec 14 15:10 A Dec 22 19:10 Dec 29 14:34 p

And what is Delta T and the other letters: "A" "P" and "p" etc?

And what is this 02h 56m ?)

You can count to six with one hand.

Clever people can count as far as 31 on one hand ;-)

"Peter Sheppard" wrote in message
...
You can count to six with one hand.

Clever people can count as far as 31 on one hand ;-)


When I show my kids that, they double over laughing when I get to four.

:-(

Peter Sheppard wrote:
You can count to six with one hand.

Clever people can count as far as 31 on one hand ;-)

And on the other hand.. would they need two to, too?

Bend your fingers a little, count from the tip of the finger to each
crease all the way to the wrist. How many is that?

Then count palm down.