Eli5: Why are circles specifically 360 degrees and not 100?
In: Mathematics
In addition to what other people are saying, during the creation of the metric system, there was an attempt to create a base ten version of angle. The Gradian.
There are 100 Gradians in a right angle. This sounds nice and reasonable, until you realize what angles come up the most often in practical situations. 30, 45, 60 and 90
45 degrees turns into 50 grad, and 90 degree turn into 100 grad. Those ones work perfectly fine.
However, 30 and 60 degrees turn into 33.33 and 66.66 grad. If you are changing into a base ten decimal system, have two of the most common values be repeating decimals is awkward and unwieldly. While scientists were perfectly happy to switch to to kilograms and meters, nobody wanted to switch to Gradians.
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