Talk:Sexagesimal

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Mathematics rating: Start Class Mid Priority  Field: History of mathematics (historical)

[edit] Symbols used

What symbols were used historically for digits 11-59 in sexagesimal? If those used today (obviously in very narrow practice) are different, what are those, as well?

Today the symbol ':' is used for times (HH:MM:SS) in ISO 8601 and so is a de facto delimiter for sexagesimal digits. So we could have for example

 Sexagesimal  Decimal
       15         15
    01:03         63
    05:00        300
    16:41       1001
 02:05:00       7500

I also put the fractions in the article into this notation, keeping the '.' as the sexagesimal point.

Karl 24 March 2004, 21 July 2004

I think some sort of example like this should go into the article, unless it contravenes some style guideline. What are the rules concerning examples in articles? ais523 11:26, 16 June 2006 (UTC)


-I am curios as to how the Sumarians were able to build a transmitter to transmit thier mathamatics 4000 years ago? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.89.188.197 (talk) 05:53, 28 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Sexagesimals in Ancient India

The Ancient Indians had a sexagesimal system as well; as clearly explained in the Surya Siddhanta. I think there needs to be a paragraph on that. In fact, the two cultures, Sumeria & India, developed the sexagesimal system independently. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.180.39.64 (talk) 16:50, 22 April 2008 (UTC)

Supply appropriate sources (both for their use in the Surya Siddhanta and, if you wish it stated in the article, for the independence of their development from the Sumerians) and we can add it easily enough. —David Eppstein (talk) 16:55, 22 April 2008 (UTC)
The Surya Siddhanta is usually dated to the 3rd century CE based on the position of its vernal equinox, which is 'frozen' sidereally, now near April 14. This is many centuries after the Babylonians, and even after the Hellenistic astronomers, Hipparchus and Ptolemy, had used a sexagesimal system using Greek numerals. The supposed version dating to the 3rd century BCE is probably the Vedanga Jyotisha of Lagadha. Even that is still about 2500 years after the Sumerians are known to have used a fully formed sexagesimal system (except for zero) during the 3rd millennium BCE, based on surviving cuneiform tablets. I can't remember whether the Surya Siddhanta itself used sexagesimal notation. — Joe Kress (talk) 20:47, 22 April 2008 (UTC)
Regardless of the (lack of) merit of any priority claims, or the pointlessness of claiming priority for sexagesimal when they have a much stronger and more important claim for decimal, if some ancient Indians actually used sexagesimal then we should mention it in the article. —David Eppstein (talk) 22:36, 22 April 2008 (UTC)