
Why is base 60 more precise for trigonometry, can you give an example? - virgilkf
https://math.stackexchange.com/questions/2405480/why-is-base-60-more-precise-for-trigonometry-can-you-give-an-example
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ordu
With decimal numbers we can write 1/3 as 3/10+3/100+3/1000+..., it is infinite
series converging to 1/3\. With base 60 we can write it as 20/60, just one
term of series is not null. When dealing with infinite series one would need
to pick few first terms of series dropping the rest thus losing precision.

With decimal numbers we can write down exact quotient when divide by powers of
2 and 5, because 10=2 * 5. With base twelve we could write exact quotients
from division by powers of 2 and 3. With base 60 we could write anything that
comes from division by powers of 2, 3 and 5. It can be archieved with base
30=2 * 3 * 5, and I'm not sure that base 60 superior to 30, it do not allow to
write more fractional numbers precisely. Maybe it sometimes simplifies
arithmetic operations though. I believe, it is easier to divide by 4 in base
60 than in base 30.

Now we have processors that can deal with great amount of terms of series and
can keep any reasonable precision we need (in the most cases at least), but
back then it was hard work for skilled enough to deal with arithmetic
operations.

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oldandtired
Counting to twelve is easy with one hand. Counting to sixty is easy with two
hands. It is a modern thing to count to ten with two hands.

~~~
CarolineW
What you say might be true - although there are many people who doubt it, with
some quoting research papers - but it simply doesn't answer the question
asked, and is pretty much a complete _non sequitur._

~~~
oldandtired
People use what they use. So if they use base twelve or base sixty or binary
or octal or hexadecimal or base five because they have a simple way of
counting in that grouping then that's what you'll see them using. Just because
we don't use it today doesn't mean anything.

