Number Twelve Number Twelve Is Everywhere! We use the number twelve to help us do things every day. It helps us to count things, measure length, and tell time. Did you ever wonder why a year has twelve months? A ruler has twelve inches? A clock has twelve hours? How We Learned to Count. Long ago, people needed an easy way to count things. How many goats did they have? How many bricks did they need? They didn't have pencils, but they always had their fingers. How could their fingers help them count things? Your hand has four fingers and one thumb. Fingers bend into three parts. All of your finger parts add up to-twelve! To learn how people counted, use the thumb of your other hand. Count the parts of each finger. One, two, three, four, five, six. Using their fingers, people could count their farm animals. They might count six chickens, three sheep, and three goats. They had twelve animals! When their animals had babies, it was easy to count them, too. Using both hands, people could count to twenty-four. Twenty-four is two twelves! A Ruler Is Twelve Thumbs Long Fingers, and the number twelve, were also used to find length. An inch was the width of an adult man's thumb. A foot was twelve thumbs long. Soon, people cut twelve marks for thumb widths on a stick. It was easy to carry the stick. That stick was the first kind of twelve-inch ruler! Twelve Hours in a Day People used the number twelve to divide their days into parts, or hours, that they could count. In daylight, they watched the shadow of a stick or a sundial to know what hour it was. Twelve things are also called a dozen. We buy a dozen pencils in a box. We buy a dozen doughnuts or a dozen eggs. The number twelve helps us to do a dozen things every day!