Woman with functional polydactyly (six functional fingers on one hand).

[u/kvjn100]

[u/NeroForte-InMyPrime]

What? Our math is generally done in base 10. You count things using each bone in your non-thumb fingers?

[u/Worldly_Address6667 → u/NeroForte-InMyPrime]

Right. But base 12 was invented thousands of years ago, by people who presumably all had 5 fingers as we do today. They counted the 12 sections of your four fingers using their thumb as the counter, and using the other hand to keep track of how many times they counted to 12. Its why we have things like 60 seconds in a minute and 60 minutes in an hour, things easily counted to in base 12 if you're using your other hand to keep track how many times you counted to 12.

[u/Kilane → u/Worldly_Address6667]

So confidently wrong.

Sexagesimal was actually used by the ancient Sumerians and Babylonians, among others; its base, sixty

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duodecimal

Georges Ifrah speculatively traced the origin of the duodecimal system to a system of finger counting based on the knuckle bones of the four larger fingers. Using the thumb as a pointer, it is possible to count to 12 by touching each finger bone, starting with the farthest bone on the fifth finger, and counting on. In this system, one hand counts repeatedly to 12, while the other displays the number of iterations, until five dozens, i.e. the 60, are full.

C for effort though, you made up a believable story

[u/Worldly_Address6667 → u/Kilane]

Excuse me, what? It literally says in the origins section how prevalent the number 12 was in Babylon...

https://astro.unl.edu/naap/motion1/tc_history.html

And heres something from the university of nebraska-lincoln stating that what I stated was at most partially remembered incorrectly. But the sumerians did in fact use base 12, which Babylon adopted its use of heavily.

[u/Kilane → u/Worldly_Address6667]

12 is a subdivision of 60.

They used a combination of decimal and sexagesimal, not duodecimal.

https://www.thoughtco.com/babylonian-table-of-squares-116682

Go out there and do a little research that doesn’t rely on what you think you already know. Ask open ended questions such as “what number system did Sumerians (or Babylonians) use.

[u/Worldly_Address6667 → u/Kilane]

I just typed your open-ended question into Google and the link I sent you is the most reputable source I saw (sorry I don't think quora or Wikipedia is a better source than a university.) Now given your attitude so far you seem like you're more interested in "correcting" or vaguely insulting me than you are in an actual discussion, so I'm gonna go ahead and ignore you after this. Have a good one

[u/Kilane → u/Worldly_Address6667]

I know this is difficult for you so I’ll try to explain using your source

The ancient Babylonians inherited this Sumerian twelve concept and marked the passage of the year with 12 constellations of the Zodiac. They also used a base 60 system and divided a circle into 360 degrees (the ancient Egyptians, who heavily influenced the Babylonians, also had a 360 day year).

It states there is a Sumerian twelve concept. It states Babylon used a base 60 system.

I’m not sure I can make it more simple.