Have you ever wondered where a full circle gets its 360 degrees from? Why not something more straightforward like 10 or 100 degrees? Who decided this? Then why? The most common system we use in daily life is 360 degrees, but there are others, including radians (which divide a circle into two halves) and gradians (which divide a circle into 400 pieces). Although no one is certain of the precise origin of the use of 360, there are a few theories that we are going to explore in this article.
First, there were ancient civilizations
The ancient Sumerian and Babylonian sexagesimal system is one possible explanation for the usage of 360°. The basis value of the sexagesimal system is 60, whereas we now utilize the decimal system, which has a base value of 10. Thus, to create new numbers, we begin repeating the symbols of earlier numbers from 0 to 9 once we reach the tenth number. The Babylonians used 60 distinct symbols to represent numerals. Why would they utilize 60 once more? Because 60 has up to 12 elements and is very composite, like 360. For the decimal system, we can count on our fingers up to 10, but we can also count up to 60. Start by counting the knuckles of the 4 fingers (not the thumb) on your right hand. 12, right? Now, on the other hand, raise any of those fingers to remember that you finished one iteration and got the number 12. Now, repeat the same procedure as many times as the number of fingers remaining on the left hand. The number you will end up with is 12 knuckles x 5 fingers = 60.
Second, calendars
We can possibly be using 360° now because of old calendars. It has been known for thousands of years that the Earth orbits the Sun in about 360 days. For instance, the ancient Persians had a 365-day calendar that was effectively 360 days long with an additional intercalation month to keep the calendar in sync with the seasons. If you have a calendar with 360 days, it makes sense to believe that the Earth completes 1/360 of its orbit each day, dividing the orbit into 360 equally sized chunks.
Third, The Mathematics
In addition to having a lot of features, 360 is advantageous because, although first appearing random, it has a lot of aspects that make it extremely effective. The fact that there are several elements implies that 360 is very easily separated. If we wish to divide the circle in half, we may use the whole number formula 360o 2 = 180o. The circle may be divided into twelve pieces using the formula 360° 12 = 30°, which is another full number. In actuality, 360 is comprised of 24 elements, including 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 12, 15, 18, 20, 24, 30, 36, 40, 45, 60, 72, 90, 120, and the number 360.