SEXAGESIMAL • DICCIONARIO INGLES.COM • Definition of Sexagesimal

Listen

adjective

Sexagesimal adj. Pertaining to, or founded on, the number sixty.

Sexagesimal fractions or Sexagesimal numbers (Arith. & Alg.), those fractions whose denominators are some power of sixty; as, 1/60, 1/3600, 1/216000; called also astronomical fractions, because formerly there were no others used in astronomical calculations.

Sexagesimal arithmetic, or Sexagenary arithmetic, the method of computing by the sexagenary scale, or by sixties.

Sexagesimal scale (Math.), the sexagenary scale.

See images of 'Sexagesimal'

Etymology of 'Sexagesimal'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

Share |

"Sexagesimal" Quotes from Famous Books

... the sine, or half-chord of the double arc, instead of the chord of the arc itself, which had been employed by the Greek astronomers; the other, of even more practical benefit, was the introduction of the present decimal arithmetic, instead of the troublesome sexagesimal arithmetic of the Greeks. These ten digits, however, seem, says Professor Whewell, by the confession of the Arabians themselves, to be of Indian origin, and thus form no exception to the sterility of the Arabian genius ...

— Alexandria and her Schools • Charles Kingsley

Words linked to "Sexagesimal" : one-sixtieth