Why is the circle 360?

in blog •  4 years ago 

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There are two definitions of a 360 degree circle. It also has a connection with Babylon [2] (Babylon was a city in Mesopotamia. Its ruins can be found in the province of Babylon in Iraq. Babylon is located about 75 kilometers (55 miles) south of Baghdad.) The first of the two explanations is quite interesting! Why interesting? Because it has a relationship with astronomy!

We all know the word MONTH! MONTH means month! This MONTH has a relationship with MON and again with MOON. MONTH and MOON have the same ROOT. There is also a trademark called MONDAY. MONDAY's Bangla Monday. Everyone knows! Coincidentally, Monday-Monday also means the moon! After all, MOON has a relationship with MONTH! The Babylonians noticed that it took about 30 days for the moon to return from one phase to the same (roughly!). By the same token, it takes 30 days to return from one full moon to another. They took these 30 days for a month. Now we know it's not exactly 30 days. They also noticed that it takes about 12 months for a season to change and return to that season.
They knew that the sun revolves around the earth. So they think that the sun takes 12 months to orbit the earth. For them, one month meant 30 days. And one year was 12X30 days = 360 days. And naturally their calendar was 360 days.

Now think about it, the sun orbiting the earth once (according to them) means it takes 360 days to start from one point and return to that place and of course the orbit of the sun is circular. Compare this orbit of the sun with a circle!
If you divide the circle formed by the orbit of the sun into 360 parts, you will get one day! One day portion of a circle can also be imagined as one degree. This is an explanation of the circle being 360 degrees!

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  ·  4 years ago  ·  

That was helpful. Learning about these ancient civilizations can tell us a lot about the origin of most measurements we take for granted These people really looked into the stars :)