Why are there 360 degrees in a circle?
The Circle's Ancient Code
Why are there 360 degrees in a circle?
Someone, a very long time ago, sat down and decided: a circle gets 360 degrees. Not 100. Not 1000. Three hundred and sixty. Why that number? It feels random — like someone threw a dart at a number line. But here's the thing: it wasn't random at all. It was actually kind of brilliant.
The story starts in ancient Babylon, about 4000 years ago, in what's now Iraq. The Babylonians were obsessed with the sky — tracking stars, watching the moon, counting days. And they noticed something: it takes about 360 days for the seasons to cycle and come back around. A full circle through the year.
