base-12 numeral system

What could drive a human civilization to use base-12 system? As far as I know there have been such civilizations and they probably used their phalanges to count (instead of their fingers). I have found several possible reasons:

• the need to divide by 3 (probably the reason romans used base-12 fractions); other than the obvious, this it is also useful for angles in geometry
• natural events (like 12 months in a year) may make the system more natural
• counting can be done with one hand (while the other is used for something else)
• making clocks with 12 hours is easier (AFAIK that's why the decimal time never took off)

As the system is almost never used today, I guess there must be some reason. My only guess is trade necessitated using a single system and base-10 somehow won.

What led to the universal usage of the base-10 system? Can two numeral systems survive when trading or will one dominate?

posted almost 10 years ago

martinkunev‭

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