sexagesimal definition

Pertaining to, or founded on, the number sixty.

<mathematics> Sexagesimal fractions or numbers, 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, or Sexagenary, arithmetic, the method of computing by the sexagenary scale, or by sixties.

<mathematics> Sexagesimal scale, the sexagenary scale.

Origin: Cf. F. Sexagesimal.

(01 Mar 1998)