this post was submitted on 03 Aug 2023
2892 points (97.0% liked)

Strange Planet by Nathan W. Pyle

7359 readers
67 users here now

A community dedicated to Strange Planet comics by Nathan W. Pyle.

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
lukenamop
2892
logical (lemmy.world)
submitted 2 years ago by lukenamop to c/nathanwpyle
467 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] mv777711 6 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (2 children)

The Egyptians and Babylonians counted in base 12. They did so by counting each section of the fingers on one hand with their thumb (4 fingers, 3 sections each = 12).

[–] Hypersapien 1 points 2 years ago

From what I understand they used base 60. They counted each finger section on one hand with each of the fingers on the other (5x12)

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 years ago

I have noticed old people in India who are used to counting like that as well.