answer:as far as i have learned, nobody really knows for certain where the 24 hour day, 60 minute hour, and 60 second minute come from. we do know that the babylonian and sumerian civilizations used a base 60 counting system, and so it seems reasonable to assume that they would develop a base 60 method of keeping time. that would explain the minutes and seconds… but hours? 12 is 1/5 of 60, and so perhaps these civilizations had 5 as some kind of important number (easy to imagine… five fingers on the hand). then you could imagine the decision to mark off 12 hours of day and 12 hours of night, which puts us at 24 hours. what i find totally unbelievable is the apparent coincidence of the 24 hour day versus the 24,000 mile equator. seriously!? there is one hour in the day per 1000 feet of earth circumference, and it’s coincidence!? yet i have found no evidence that suggests there is any link. of course, the circumference of the earth is actually around 24,900. but still, that’s pretty close. i guess truth really is stranger than fiction.