On May 22, 2008, at 12:25 AM, Pat McBride wrote:
Didn't the ancients in the Middle East base their number system on
hexadecimal, or something like that.
Sexagesimal -- base 60. The degree-minute-second and the hour-minute-
second are still based on it. The Mayans used base 20.
In the Bible, it says that Noah built the ark using cubits as a
length. And as Bill Cosby once said "What's a cubit?"
A cubit is elbow-to-fingertip. As reasonable, after all, as a "foot",
and, until modern times, when there began to be cultural pressure to
make each measure a multiple of the measure beneath it, just about as
common, along with the palm, the hand (still used to measure horses),
the span (thumb to pinkie), the ell, the fathom, and many other body-
oriented measures.
--
John W Kennedy
"The pathetic hope that the White House will turn a Caligula into a
Marcus Aurelius is as naïve as the fear that ultimate power inevitably
corrupts."
-- James D. Barber (1930-2004)
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