sexagesimal scale

2 definitions found

sexagesimal scale - Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 :

  Sexagenary \Sex*ag"e*na*ry\, a. [L. sexagenarius, fr. sexageni
     sixty each, akin to sexaginta sixty, sex six: cf.
     sexag['e]naire. See Six.]
     Pertaining to, or designating, the number sixty; poceeding by
     sixties; sixty years old.
     [1913 Webster]
  
     Sexagenary arithmetic. See under Sexagesimal.
  
     Sexagenary scale, or Sexagesimal scale (Math.), a scale
        of numbers in which the modulus is sixty. It is used in
        treating the divisions of the circle.
        [1913 Webster]

  Sexagesimal \Sex`a*ges"i*mal\, a. [Cf. F. sexag['e]simal.]
     Pertaining to, or founded on, the number sixty.
     [1913 Webster]
  
     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.
        [1913 Webster]