In The Hitchhiker‘s Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams writes that the answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe and everything is 42…. I think it is 12.
There are 12 months in the year, our days are divided into two sets of 12 hours each, there are 12 stars on the EU flag, 12 days of Christmas, Jesus had 12 apostles and Islam has the 12 Imams that were successors of the prophet Muhammad (PBUH).
The number 12 is not random and it can be traced back to the old Mesopotamians and the Egyptians. Look at the four fingers on your hand – excluding your thumb. When you bend your fingers, you can see that they are divided into 3 sections. The ancients used that as a counting method – 12 counts per hand. Why would they do that if it would be easier to just use your fingers and count to 10? Like us, they hated fractions! Think about it: 10 is divisible by 1, 2 and 5 – after that, you are getting into fractions. 12 on the other hand, is divisible by 1,2,3,4 and 6 – so much easier for everyday use.
So where exactly does 60 come from? 60 is the maximum we can count on using two hands – it is called the Sexagesimal system. Here is the math: 1 hand + 1 finger = 24, 1 hand + 2 fingers = 36, 1 hand + 3 fingers + 48 and 1 hand + 4 fingers = 60. That is right – simple multiplication.
The ancient method of telling time was by using a sundial – and because they invented it, they used the numbers which made sense to them and divided the dial into 12 equal parts which today translates to 12 hours.
We use the metric system and I have always thought it to be the most logical system – everything revolves around the number 10. It may be the most logical, but is it the most practical? Think about this. If we stuck to the number 12, the default in e.g. slicing a pizza would be 12 slices – much easier to divide between friends than 10 – or 8, for those using the imperial system. So we may have made math a bit easier by going metric, but we did make life a lot less practical.
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