Quote:
Originally Posted by neilmarr
IBy the way, did you know that the old 12 unit for measuing coinage and length was the invention of mathematicians long before Rome adopted it to some extent? The reason is pretty simple: Take the tip of your thumb and use it to touch the three joints in each of the four fingers of that hand. Voila -- twelve. I think it's of Sumarian origin.
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and Twenty Shillings to the pounds because we have twenty finger and toes I suppose?
Nope. We use base 10 because of 10 fingers, but we used base 12 because it's easily divided by 2, 3, 4 and 6. Sumerians used base 60 (not base 12), as that adds in divisibility by 5 (& 10, 12, 15, 20, 30).