Here’s a brief history of time
History Of Time – Have you ever wondered how the concept of time was invented? Here’s a brief history of this.
In modern times, people can already tell the time. Devices and gadgets come with a clock that tells what time it is. With this invention, people can set a certain appointment or event. Certain tasks are done at specific times and this has become a very useful tool for humans.
Based on the article in Mental Floss, people told the time through sunset, sunrise, seasons, and perhaps tides. As civilization developed and certain appointments and tasks needed to be done at a specific period, the necessity pushed humans to invent time.
The first clocks were made by Egyptians using the shadows and split the day into 12. However, this only worked during the day. At night, Egyptians marked the nighttime hours by watching the constellations rise.
Why did the Egyptians choose 12? They preferred the duodecimal numbers to match the lunar cycles in a year.
Eventually, the watching of water drip replaced the watching of the stars but the hours weren’t fixed. Then, Greek astronomers decided to divide circles into 360 degrees, which was thought to be random. Each degree was 60 smaller “minutes.” In this were the 60 smaller “seconds.”
Greek astronomers borrowed this concept from Babylonians, with a lot of their maths. Babylonians used the base-60 number system which they also borrowed from Sumerians. The 24, 60, 60 system does not make sense but this just happened.
Eventually, water clocks gained worldwide popularity with their sophisticated appearance. It was the Europeans who got rid of the water entirely and they just used gears. During the Industrial Revolution, workers became slaves of time as schedules could be regulated to the minute.
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