(upbeat music)
- Hey everybody, my name
is Ben and today's question
is why do we measure time the way we do?
At the first glance, it seems
like it's a sensible thing
until we start delving into it.
So, let's start with a day.
What is a day?
A day is just the amount
of time that it takes
our globe to make a full
rotation on its axis.
Simple, right?
But then we divide a day into
24 parts, for some reason,
and then of those 24 hours,
we measure those in 60 minute
increments, for some reason.
And then, when we get down to a minute,
we measure that in
terms of seconds, again,
a collection of 60, for some reason.
But when we get to
seconds, we measure those
in the most popular
numerical system today,
the decimal system.
So, we talk in terms of
a hundredth of a second,
or a millionth of a second, but why?
How do we even start measuring days
and dividing them this way?
The Babylonians were measuring
time in what's called
a sexagesimal system, as
opposed to a decimal system,
base 60 instead of base 10.
So earlier, we said
that the decimal system
is the most popular, and
it makes sense, right?
Because the vast majority of
human beings have 10 fingers.
It's very easy for the human
species to count to 10.
So, why would you use
something relies on 60,
or why would you use
something that relies on 12?
When we look at the Babylonian system,
it actually makes some sense.
There's some method to
the ancient madness.
Here's why, if we use the
base 10 idea, 10 to 100,
the notation that we would have to make
to measure a specific time of
day would become ridiculous
very quickly, and complicated as well.
The thing is that 60 has some advantages.
Because 60, if you just
break it down is essentially
five times 12, then it
has both the advantages
of 10 and 12 as a system.
So, that is why it makes
sense for us to use 60 seconds
and 60 minutes,
but the big explanation that
no one's figured out yet
is how this spread around the world.
Did it happen because it
was an accident of history?
Did it happen because it really
is the most efficient way
that human beings have
figured out to measure time?
And one last thing,
we're all familiar with AM and PM, right?
AM stands for ante meridiem,
and PM stands for post meridiem.
These are terms that came
about during the Roman era
when they used to divide the
entire day into two things,
just AM and PM.
This was so important, in fact,
that they used to have
these people whose only job
was to wait until the sun crossed over
so they could run to
the forum and say, okay,
it's noon, it's officially PM.
And that's because lawyers were
required to show up by noon.
All right, that's it, thank
you so much for watching.
We hope that you enjoyed this video,
we hope that you check out
some of our other videos here.
Go ahead and like, comment, and subscribe,
and I have a question for you.
If you could institute a new
time system, what would it be?
Believe it or not,
people have tried before,
but that's sort of a
story for another day.
