I've been puzzled by the avoirdupois system for a long time. I've wondered if maybe whoever invented it had 6 fingers & toes.

Think of it this way. You're in the process of becoming 'sophisticated' & need a way to count more than 'one or many.' Surely you'd come up with a system based on 10's? Or 5's perhaps? There you are with 5 fingers & toes - what would be more natural than to start counting in groups of 5's?

And in fact, that is what happened - our number system is base 10 & that works out well.

So why on Earth would measurements be based in 6's & 12's? It's awkward to say the least to try to use such a system while simultaneously running with a base 10 number system.

360º in a circle, 60', 60" - why? Why not something that makes sense in 10's?

If you try tracing it back, it goes a long way. There's guesses that we use 360º because it matches the days in the year - no it doesn't! And to do it that way, the ancients would need to know the Earth travels in a circle.

So it's another of those 'this doesn't fit' puzzles.

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