Comment on 5 tomatoes
the_crotch@sh.itjust.works 19 hours agoThe Babylonian number system was base 12, that’s why there are 24 hours in a day and 60 minutes in an hour. Afaik they had the normal number of fingers, they were just smarter about making their numbering system divisible.
saimen@feddit.org 19 hours ago
The just started counting with zero (fist)
ricecake@sh.itjust.works 11 hours ago
That gets you base 11, which is what we count on our fingers in now.
They counted, at least for tallying, by putting their thumb on the three finger bones if the other four fingers on the hand. One hand can count to 12, and then you lift a finger in the other when starting over. That method gives you a count of 60’on your fingers. That’s why 12 and 60 still crop up all the time.