Some history on time calculation

When thinking about time itself, I have always had the thought of it being a continuous and endless cycle in the back of my mind. In relation to my own experience, I have always understood a year as a cycle consisting of 365 days, with 12 months and 4 seasons: spring, summer, fall and winter. Each season lasts 3 months, which is equivalent to one quarter of the cycle, and each month has roughly 30 days. In addition, I think of one month as 1/12 of a cycle. I also think of one hour as 60 minutes, which represents one cycle of the clock, one minute as 60 seconds which is 1/60 of the cycle and one second as one tiny division of the analog clock.

While reading the articles, both articles mentioned Babylonians refining the sexagesimal (base 60) system inherited from the Sumerians. However, MacTutor focused more on the history of the Babylonians and how they developed the sexagesimal system, while Scientific American focused on the development of time through the course of history. For instance, in MacTutor's article, he mentioned suggestions that base 60 was chosen because people thought there were 360 days a year back in the day, while the other article mentioned how 60 was useful in different ways. Essentially, MacTutor provided a possible reason for implementing base 60 through different theories and explanations, while Scientific American emphasized on the usefulness of 60.

One thing that I find really interesting is how Egyptians used a T-shaped bar to divide the interval between sunrise and sunset into 12 parts, calculating the duration of daylight. At night, they marked the remaining 12 stars of the set of 36 stars, resulting in 12 divisions of night, which eventually led to the creation of the 24 hour period. I have always thought the 12 hour time interval was created from the movement of the Sun from sunrise to sunset. The way the ancient civilization measured time is not something I would've ever thought of, considering that technology wasn't as advanced as it is today. This made me realize the way I think about time actually comes from systems that people developed by observing the Sun and stars. When I think about how the day and night pass, I will definitely make the connection and picture the stars at night.