Why 12 notes in Western music?
Let&#x27;s talk about splitting things up in useful ways.<p>12=2 * 2 * 3.<p>Splitting something in half is useful; splitting it half again remains useful. Splitting in half a third time is arguably less useful than splitting it into a third. So 12 is the made-to-order number that lets you split it in half, twice, and in thirds, once.<p>Which naturally leads to seconds and minutes, or 60:<p>60=2 * 2 * 3 * 5<p>Because dividing the whole into fifths is more useful than a second 3, or a third 2.<p>So, there&#x27;s your basic argument for why you would see a 12 or a 60 instead of a 10 or some other number. You have a whole that you want to divide into useful parts.<p>I&#x27;m not sure that the linked article, or the current top comment (Circle of Fifths) meaningfully extends beyond this &quot;useful parts&quot; hypothesis; we like hearing useful parts would be the somewhat surprising thing to talk about.