How do we know how long a second is?

Question

Is it something we just made up? Or is it something that was discovered?

In: 1

Answer 1

We used to count in base 12, instead of base 10. You see how your fingers (minus your thumbs) are all divided into three sections by your knuckles? They all count up to 12. Count that five times (one for each finger on your other hand), you get 60. 60 seconds in a minute, 60 minutes in an hour, 24 hour days broken into 2 sections of 12, etc.