roman numerals

[joanne8546]

why are these still used? i thought at first that it was because they're universal, but apparently they're not.......

[heathfield]

Various reasons, some of which are...
1) To disguise the age of a film, book, or TV show so you won't realise that what you're watching isn't new but was made in 1953.
2) To distinguish more readily separate parts of printed matter such as preface pages (i,ii,etc), chapters, paragraphs, etc.
3) The use of Arabic numerals took a very long time to be accepted throughout Europe, and the first clocks bore Roman numerals. This became a traditional practice for clockmakers that continues up to the present day.

[Octavius]

There are said to be two reasons for this.

- Adding and subtracting are very easy with Roman numerals.

- Indo-Arabic numerals can more easily be mistaken or forged - an 0 can look like a 6 or an 8 or a 9 or be turned into one by a single stroke.

Although simple arithmetic may be easier with Roman numerals, multiplication and division, fractions, and more advanced mathematics are difficult and the lack of a zero is a particular disadvantage. So Indo-Arabic numerals slowly replaced Roman ones in everyday life.

[wizard]

And it looks good!

[jno]

well, you say that, wizard, but you try dividing MDCXIV by CLV

[Hellion]

is it do nt kn ow?

[wizard]

jno am I right in thinking the answer is 10.412903?

[jno]

10.412903 is in arabic numerals... and could it be possible that you converted the whole sum into arabic numerals before doing it? Romans couldn't do that.

http://scienceblogs.com/goodmath/2006/08/roman _numerals_and_arithmetic.php

[kepla]

I cannot agree that using roman numerals is a way of diguising the age of anything - there can't be many people around who are too thick to understand them !
Calling the numerals we most usually use for counting 'Arabic' is not actually correct either ! They are more Egyptian than Arabic in origin.
Roman numerals were originally developed for tallying - counting up whole units, and are pretty much useless for any form of mathematics., thanks to the lack of any zero or way of representing fractions.

[bricro]

Just by way of interest what is the Roman Numeral for four on a clock? Don't look!!

[jno]

aye aye, bricro, aye aye

[m123f]

A recent TV programme showed that what we call Arabic numbers existed in India 500BC. Again, zero did not appear tll 500 years after the first written record of our numbers.