Why are there 360 degrees in a circle? I assume it has to do with the fact that it’s 60 x 6, and 6 was supposed to be a special number in ancient times (Babylon I think?). But why was 6 a special number?
Also, why are both circles and temperatures measured in degrees?
The origins of the number 360 are obscure, but it is believed that it was chosen because it is the approximate number of days in a year. Indeed, several ancient calendars have exactly 360 days per year.
360 is divisible by 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 12, 15, 18, 20, 24, 30, 36, 40, 45, 60, 72, 90, 120, and 180. Makes it kinda convenient.
So is 720. I’m not sure that convenience is the answer.
This Wiki Link seems to give some history as friedo alluded to.
I think “degrees” can imply points on a scale, meaning an arbitrary assigned range of numbers to describe something. You would say degrees Brix, for example, to describe how much sugar a certain instrument finds is in a water solution.
Note that measuring something in units, such as meters or pints, is different. The kelvin is a unit of temperature, and we say “174.15 kelvins equals 1 degree Celsius”, not “degrees Kelvin”. So temperature is not always in degrees.
:dubious:
A change in 1 K and a change in 1 °C are identical. The only difference between the kelvin and Celsius scales is an additive offset factor: °C = K - 273.15.
Just in case you might be thinking that the degree is based on the apparent measure of the thumb held at arm’s length, and thus the foundation for 360 of these in a circle, you might enjoy reading this article (and others).
I’m pretty sure it’s part of the answer. It means that all the most commonly used angles had a whole number of degrees, which was particularly convenient in the days before calculators. Just as, in those good old days, fractions of a degree were measured in “minutes” (1/60th of a degree) and “seconds,” so that the most common fractions of a degree could be expressed in nice whole numbers of minutes.
But it is indeed geometrically arbitrary how many degrees a circle is divided into (by contrast with radians).
Really? I can understand missing the need for a “leap year” since it only makes a small difference over the course of a few years, but I’d be suprised that ancient peoples wouldn’t notice that thier calander system was drifting from the real solar year by a wooping five days annually. That would mean that someone who was middle aged would remember how a holiday celebrated in the middle of the summer now used to be a winter holiday when he was a child.
Here is a picture of an ancient 360 day calender. i’m pretty sure intercalary days were inserted to keep the seasons in step. Three hundered sixty was convenient for the year because it could divided by so many numbers and the intercalary days made a neat annual festival time.