Why do we have twenty four hours in a day–as oppose to twenty, or twelve, or any other division of time? To uncover the mystery of the twenty-four hour day we need to take a trip back to ancient Egypt.
While many cultures around the world use a base-10 system (largely in part because they began their exploration of mathematics by counting their ten fingers), ancient Egyptians used a base-12 system. Instead of counting their individual digits, Egyptians instead counted the knuckles of each each finger using their thumbs as pointers (four fingers on each hand, three knuckles per hand, twelve total units). Continue reading Did you know: Who Divided The Day Into 24 Hours?
