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Numberphile: '60' [View all]
The ancient Babylonians used a number system with base 60 (sexagesimal). Tablet image courtesy of Bill Casselman and Yale Babylonian Collection
Sixty is the smallest number divisible by the numbers 1 to 6. (There is no smaller number divisible by the numbers 1 to 5). 60 is the smallest number with exactly 12 divisors.
The Babylonian number system had a base of sixty, inherited from the Sumerian and Akkadian civilizations, and possibly motivated by the large number of divisors which 60 has. The sexagesimal measurement of time and of geometric angles is a legacy of the Babylonian system.
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