Measure time until sunset fingers5/15/2023 Constellations (Credits:motuwe/Shutterstock) For example, hours during the day in summer would be longer, while shorter in winter. At other times, the length of an hour would vary. However, this system only worked well during equinoxes, when the Sun was directly above the equator, dividing days and nights into equal lengths. These charts had 36 columns for each decan and 12 rows for each hour that could be counted during the night.Įventually, this timekeeping process was standardized with days and nights, each having 12 hours. Now, the Egyptians made special charts called star calendars to keep track of the time using stars correctly. However, only about 12 of these stars out of 36 were visible at a given time, and which stars appeared changed with the seasons and the calendar year. They did this by paying close attention to a group of 36 special stars called “decans.” These stars rose in the sky in a pattern and were used to keep track of the hours. The ancient Egyptians used stars to calculate the time at night. It’s pretty interesting to learn how they coped with this challenge.Īlso Read: Why Do We Have Seven Days In A Week? The absence of sunlight made it very difficult to ascertain the time at night. However, this system worked well during the day when Sun was present. T Shaped bar (Credits:TeePhoto/Shutterstock) This T-shaped instrument would display time by casting a shadow on one of these 12 parts based on the Sun’s position in the sky. Later, a T-shaped bar was made by Egyptians, which was calibrated to divide the time between sunrise and sunset into 12 parts. They divided the day into 10 hours with devices like shadow clocks and then added one hour at each end (one for twilight and one at the end of the day). The 24-hour day concept comes from the ancient Egyptians. Let’s try to understand this step-by-step. Surprised at what a simple explanation that is? Well, things are going to get slightly more complicated…Īlso Read: Why We Should Use Base-12 Instead Of Base-10? Why 24 Hours? Yes, believe it or not, the structure of our fingers is precisely the reason! The number of finger joints on each hand (excluding the thumb) makes it possible to count to 12 by using the thumb. That obviously begs the question-why base 12 and base 60? The reason is simple, yet it may surprise many. The Egyptians and Babylonians, who first divided the day into smaller parts, used duodecimal (base 12) and sexagesimal (base 60) numeral systems. In today’s world, we widely use the decimal number system (base 10), which is believed to have originated because it made it easy for us to count things with our fingers.īack then, when humans were still exploring the wonders of nature and finding answers to their countless questions, many other numerical systems were commonly used. The Impact Of Civilization On Timekeeping No wonder kids have trouble learning how to tell time! But, as with every other thing in the world, there is also an explanation for this. Now, this seems like a rather strange way to divide a day.
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