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Re:The origins of 60-Hz as a power frequency by pkulak on Friday February 07, 2025 @01:59PM (#42976169)
I always assumed it's because 60 is a highly composite number (superior, in fact!). It's kinda the best number if you're ever going to need to divide. 50 is kinda garbage in that regard. :/
Re:The origins of 60-Hz as a power frequency by beeflet on Friday February 07, 2025 @03:17PM (#42976978)
It's worth mentioning 60Hz vs 50Hz distinction has ended up having a knock-on effect on framerate standards because of early TVs using it for timing, not to mention market segmentation because different products had to be manufactured for the US vs European markets.

here is a well animated video about it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DyqjTZHRdRs&t=49s

Re:The origins of 60-Hz as a power frequency by makerdiety on Friday February 07, 2025 @04:32PM (#42977715)
The number sixty is highly composite maybe because it's a multiple of three? In which case, I can see why Nikola Tesla liked the number three or multiples of three.

So he can do exploratory electrical science and analysis with flexible cases?

Re:The origins of 60-Hz as a power frequency by PortiaBerries on Friday February 07, 2025 @05:11PM (#42978086)
Yes! I was looking for this comment. Maybe because I didn't grow up with the metric system, but 60 feels like a much "rounder" number to me than 50.
Re:The origins of 60-Hz as a power frequency by layer8 on Friday February 07, 2025 @05:37PM (#42978310)
Well, 50 Hz means the period is a round 20 ms instead of 16.6666… ms.

And PAL got a higher resolution thanks to it.

Re:The origins of 60-Hz as a power frequency by pkulak on Friday February 07, 2025 @06:24PM (#42978664)
At the cost of framerate. No free lunch!
Re:The origins of 60-Hz as a power frequency by tzs on Friday February 07, 2025 @08:42PM (#42979551)
Another point in favor of 60 is there are 60 seconds in a minute and 60 minutes in an hour. If you make the frequency 60 cycles/second then you only need divide-by-60 circuits to derive 1 cycle/second, 1 cycle/minute, and 1 cycle/hour.

With 50 cycles/second you would need both divide-by-50 and divide-by-60.