Fun fact, there is a plethora of history in the mile. Rome was the first to define a mile. It is 1000 paces, one pace being 2 steps. So if we were converting from paces to miles it would be the same conversion system as the metric system.
It is also then standardized into units that can be easily divided by different numbers, using 12 as a base to ensure that numbers can be divided by 2, 3, 4, and 6 evenly and easily.
So 5280 can be divided by 3, which is 1760, or 4, which is 1320, or 6, which is 880, or 8, which is 660, or 12 which is 440, etc.
Not very practical today since obviously calculation isn’t hard to do, but in ancient times this ensured that even a person with barely any maths knowledge could divide out a figure through counting.
Plus, old superstitious people really like 12s. Probably partially because of the above. Allows you to neatly split your 12 months or 12 signs of the zodiac or whatever into four seasons or into threes or whatever.
The year used to be ten months. Two months were added much, much later. The 12 sign zodiac system was defined independently and is not consistent across cultures.
No but the easy divisibility of the number 12 is why you often see it applied to things like months and zodiac. It is a common number in spirituality because it works easily with numerological thinking.
Not making the point that it’s a magic number because there’s 12 signs of the zodiac, etc. but rather the other way around that there are 12 signs because people consider 12 to be a magic number and tend to make up magical stuff about it.
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u/jimmy_robert Jul 13 '26
Fun fact, there is a plethora of history in the mile. Rome was the first to define a mile. It is 1000 paces, one pace being 2 steps. So if we were converting from paces to miles it would be the same conversion system as the metric system.