The Nutty Numbers of Time
WHY ARE THERE 60 minutes in an hour, 24 hours in a day, 7 days in a week, and 12 months in a year? And as for months, how come the number of days vary between 28, 29, 30, and 31? Who came up with all these nutty numbers? Answer: lots of different people who lived thousands of years ago, but all had one thing in common. They were fascinated by what was happening in the sky.
Who Put 24 Hours in a Day?
It was the ancient Egyptians. Three and a half thousand years ago, they built a fabulous civilization based on farming in the Nile River Valley. Everything in Egyptian life was well ordered, especially the running of farms. Bosses organized large gangs of workers. Priests made daily offerings to the gods to guarantee good weather. Life ran like clockwork in Egypt, especially after they invented the world’s first clocks—shadow clocks.
These simple devices were tall, slender columns of stone (called obelisks) that acted like giant sundials.
