“Dad, why does a minute have 60 seconds? Shouldn’t it have 100?”

If you read my daily blog, by now you should know who asked this question. 

Caleb has been asking me questions like this from the time he was 2.

He recently turned 5 and I’m running out of answers.

So, I had to google this question and to my surprise, I learnt that the current units of time were instituted by the Babylonians, who were inspired by the Sumerians’ sexagesimal system. 

Funnily, the French smashed the old clock in 1793 and developed the French Revolutionary Time: 10-hour days, with 100 minutes per hour and 100 seconds per minute. 

Tune in tomorrow to learn a bigger lesson on innovation inspired by this attempt, and to see why we aren’t following this French fantasy anymore.

Meanwhile, I realized that no one has ever asked me this question before and neither did I question it myself!