Sixty is the number that comes after fifty-nine and before sixty-one. It's written as 60 in numerals, and it's made up of six groups of ten.

Sixty has special importance in how we measure time. There are sixty seconds in a minute and sixty minutes in an hour. People chose sixty because it can be divided evenly by many numbers: 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 10, 12, 15, 20, and 30. This made calculations easier in the days before calculators.

We also use sixty in measuring angles and coordinates. A circle has 360 degrees, which is six times sixty. When you're learning geometry, you'll work with sixty-degree angles often, especially in triangles.

In everyday life, people sometimes use “sixty” in expressions. Someone might talk about doing a complete one-eighty (turning 180 degrees, or three times sixty) when they totally change their mind about something. Or you might hear about the Roaring Twenties or the Swinging Sixties, referring to decades in history.