Have you ever wondered why we have 24 hours in a day when the rest of our math is based on the decimal system – base 10. Where did the 24 come from?
One of my passions is history; I’m not a real historian - I just watch one on TV.
It turns out that the Sumerians used base 12, not base 10. Each finger has three segments for a total of twelve segments on each hand. It’s even convenient to touch the thumb to each segment for counting. Combine both hands and you have a two-digit hand-based abacus. The Sumerians also believed that twelve was a special number – it can be divided by 2, 3, 4, or 6, while 10 can only be evenly divided by 2 and 5. So they divided the day into twelve segments – each being two modern hours long.
The 60 minutes to an hour and 60 seconds to a minute come from the Babylonians who used a base 60 mathematical system.
Finally, the Egyptians split the 12 segment day into 24 segments and standardized the hours.
(and if you know more details to this moment of history - please don't hesitate to add your knowledge as a comment.)