Re: re [tied] How many miles to Babylon? [Was: Numerals query again]

06-11-03 23:45, Gordon Selway wrote:

> Not sure whether the subject line refers just to the nursery rhyme or
> goes further back to the Babylonian system which is supposed to
> underlie time divisions and angular measurements.

Both. Traditional English usage gives one a rough idea of how a
mixed-base system works. The Sumerian/Akkadian system also used a
mixture of bases, though it was rather different from a typical
decimal/vigesimal system in assigning special prominence to '6'.

Piotr