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MEASUREMENT |
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MEASUREMENT |
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In the ruins of Babylonian cities, round stones of similar weights have been found and are believed to have measured food and other items. Most of the conversion factors are simple fractions or multiples of the base 60 instead of the traditional base10 (probably because we have 10 fingers). Base 60 is a convenient system for trading because of its divisibility of many other numbers. Our use of 60 minutes and 60 seconds comes from this type of numbering system. Key units are the kush (cubit) for length, sar (garden-plot) for area and volume, sila for capacity and mana for weight.
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