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Subject: Re: why 360 ?
From: Eric Haberfellner (ehaberfe@XXX.XXX)
Date: Sat Dec 01 2001 - 20:22:29 EST
It was during the reign of Nebuchadnezzar (605-562 BC) in the Chaldean
dynasty in Babylon that the circle was divided into 360 degrees. This was
because the Chaldeans had calculated by observation and inference that a
complete year numbered 360 days. The basis of angular measure for the
mathematicians of Babylon was the angle at each of the corners of an
equilateral triangle. They did not have decimal fractions and thus found it
difficult to deal with remainders when doing division. So they agreed to
divide the corner of an equilateral triangle into 60 degrees, because 60
could be divided by 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 without remainder. Each degree was
divided into 60 minutes and each minute into 60 seconds. If the angles at
the corners of six equilateral triangles are placed together they form the
angle formed by a complete circle (see diagram). It is for this reason that
there are six times 60 degrees of arc in the complete circle.
I found this information at the following website:
http://www.studentscount.com/impressive/360.shtml
By the way, you might want to try registering with the list again. I doubt
that your parrents actually named you "Your Name Here".
-----Original Message-----
From: Navigation Mailing List
[mailto:NAVIGATION-L@XXX.XXX]On Behalf Of Yourname Here
Sent: Saturday, December 01, 2001 7:19 PM
To: NAVIGATION-L@XXX.XXX
Subject: why 360 ?
Why does a circle have 360 degrees ?
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