In true ELI5 fashion I’ll make it as simple as possible.
It’s because of music theory. Western music is based on 12-tone equal temperament, which means we split wavelength into 12 almost equal increments between each octave, and octave being when a wavelength doubles or halves from the origin. Because of this, western music is generally based on scales that use 12-TET which means they are 7 notes in length. (Ex. C major is C D E F G A B). 7 note scales, 7 note names. It seemed the most logical course of action. From there you could determine which notes are sharp or flat by the key of the music, and thus easier to sight read than if we had NO such musical notation and had to read 12 individual notes. So it was designed quite literally so a 5 year old could read it
If you think that’s complex, Arab music notation (which predates western music) uses 24 Tone Equal Temperament, meaning their octave is divided in 24 almost equal increments.
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