stackyFACTSWe are still forced to use base-60 math to calculate time simply because ancient Babylonians thought it was a neat way to count. Despite almost everything else moving to a sensible decimal system, we are permanently shackled to ancient numeric customs every time we look at a clock.
Keep exploring facts in this topic.
Science →STACKY FOR IPHONEKeep discovering with Stacky. Interesting facts in an app that is always within reach.
Metrology ensures that a kilogram weighed in one continent is exactly identical to a kilogram weighed across the globe. Scientists dedicate massive resources…
Discover more
Evolution loves a plot twist. Millions of years ago, the ancestors of modern whales looked most like what?
Discover more
Long before quantum mechanics ruined everyone's afternoon, Hermann von Helmholtz and Lord Kelvin decided atoms were just incredibly tiny vortex rings swirling…
Discover more
When she wasn’t fighting for women’s right to vote or literally dodging police, Hertha Ayrton was obsessively boiling water in glass tanks to study sand. She…
Discover more
Desperation is the mother of brilliant mechanical engineering. In 1849, Walter Hunt owed a friend exactly fifteen dollars and had absolutely zero way to pay…
Discover more
If you look at medieval charts, you will be holding them sideways. Because the sun rises in the east, early mapmakers considered it the most important…
Discover more