The Small Story of Minutes and Seconds
During the course of my reading in Calculus I came across this interesting little anectdote. After a cursory search I'm happy to relate it here because I've always enjoyed the sense that words make.
"Minute" is shortened from the Latin phrase pars minuta prima which translates first small part [of an hour]. It's the first sexagesimal division of an hour, which was the common base unit in ancient times. "Second" is from pars minuta secunda [second small part]. It's no coincidence then that the term for our small moment of time, the second, is similar to the number two, it's the second order of smallness in dividing an hour.
Comments
I couldn't put it better. Thanks for the useful information! thats the kind of thing i like reading about. I wish you'd post more often
I wish I wrote more often too, I enjoy it. But, unfortunately I can only write when I have something interesting to say.