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If you're deriving a number by repeatedly adding (e.g., 5 12 times), you should be bound to have a greater than average number of divisors.

So in some ways it's not entirely coincidental.

In fact, 12 is derived the same way, 4 fingers times 3 knuckles, so the only coincidence is that 4 is divisible by 2.



I'm saying that the base 60 Babylonian system is derived from how many fingers people have on each hand and how many segments per finger, not because it's a fantastic base because it's got lots of whole divisors.

If people were Disney cartoon characters (3 fingers + thumb) they'd likely have used base 36 (9 segments, 4 total digits on other hand).

And yes -- by having a mixed system like this you'll end up with more divisors than if you only count digits.


Yes, I agree. I'm saying it's not a coincidence that 60 has many divisors, but rather an artifact of the way it was derived. I don't think we disagree.




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