Thanks to the ancient civilizations that defined and preserved the divisions of time, modern society still conceives of a day of 24 hours, an hour of 60 minutes and a minute of 60 seconds.

It’s a marvel any of us ever learns to tell time. One “day” of 24 hours divided at noon into two 12-hour chunks — why 24 and 12? And each hour consists of 60 minutes with 60 seconds to a ...

DeFacto, Wikimedia Commons // CC BY-SA 4.0 Everybody knows that there are 24 hours in a day, 60 minutes in an hour, and 60 seconds in minute.* But in 1793, the French smashed the old clock in ...

Add it all together: 12 hours of darkness + 12 hours of light = 24 hours. Another ancient people ... and then to break down each minute into 60 seconds. It took a long time before this happened.