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Why are circles 360 degrees?

Updated: 4/27/2022
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16y ago

Best Answer

It's just a convention. Mathemeticians could have chosen some other number, but 360 is divisible by many whole numbers, so it is convenient.


It has some interesting history behind. Sumerians of Mesopotamia observed the sun, moon and other planets.

They noticed that the circular track of the Sun's annual path across the sky and found that it took about 360 day-nights to complete one circle.

Consequently, they divided the circular path into 360 degrees to track each day's passage of the Sun's whole journey.
This probably happened about 2400 BC.

Beyond that, the number 360 has some interesting facts.

It is the number divisible by all numbers from 1 to 10 except 7 and has more factors.


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16y ago
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Q: Why are circles 360 degrees?
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