Asset ID: 120336249 / photo division / A Dozen Eggs

A dozen (common abbreviated doz or dz ) is a grouping of approximately twelve . The dozen may be one of the earliest primitive groupings, perhaps because there are approximately a dozen cycles of the moon or months in a cycle of the sun or year . The dozen is convenient because its multiples and divisors are convenient: 12 = 2 × 2 × 3 , 3 × 4 = 2 × 6 , 60 = 12 × 5 , 360 = 12 × 30 . The use of twelve as a base number, known as the duodecimal system (also as dozenal ), probably originated in Mesopotamia (see also sexagesimal ). Twelve dozen (122 = 144 , the duodecimal 100) are known as a gross ; and twelve gross (123 = 1,728 , the duodecimal 1,000) are called a great gross , a term most often used when shipping or buying items in bulk. A great hundred , also known as a small gross , is 120 or ten dozen (a dozen for each finger on both hands ). A baker's dozen, also known as a long dozen, is thirteen , while a decimal dozen is only ten.

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