Homework for Monday Sept 21-- Read and respond : Some interesting resources on the (Babylonian-based) history of time calculations, base 60 and base 12

When I think about a year, January is not my top pick as the beginning. I go crabbing every May, so the month of May feels like the start of my personal year cycle. I picture the year as a circle, beginning in May, then moving through summer, fall, winter, spring, and eventually May again. Turns out, the way we experience time can be related more to personal experiences rather than official holidays or calendars!

The articles made me reconsider how arbitrary some measurements of time around the world are. For instance, dividing hours into 60 minutes and minutes into 60 seconds originates from ancient Babylonian mathematics, while other cultures have their own takes on the topic of "time" based on observing weathers, seasons, and daylight. Take the Chinese 24 Solar Terms as an example. 

One inconsistency between the articles is that Scientific American suggests that base 60 is useful because it can be divided nicely in many ways, while the MacTutor article suggests that historians are not quite sure on why base 60 was originally chosen. I found it surprising that rather natural / normal looking measurements actually dated back to historical and cultural origins that might be completed unrelated to us in some sense.