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Roman numerals
In the past, roman numerals were used. You count therein as follows
Ⅰ Ⅱ Ⅲ Ⅳ Ⅴ Ⅵ Ⅶ Ⅷ Ⅸ Ⅹ
what corresponds to the Arabic numerals
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Zero
There is no digit for 0 (Latin: nulla). There's been discussion for centuries whether or not 0 is a number. Today we call it a number, and for writing decimal numbers we need it.
Large numbers
The Romans had no decimal system and formed numbers by combining the different symbols.
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 I II III IV V VI VII VIII IV X XI XII XIII
10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 X XX XXX XL L LX LXX LXXX XC
100 500 1 000 C D M
1 000 5 000 10 000 50 000 100 000 ↀ ↁ ↂ ↇ ↈ
IIII
Sometimes you will see roman numerals as decoration on buildings. On analog clocks, the hours are usually indicated with roman numerals. The number Ⅳ is almost always shown as ⅡⅡ. Because roman numerals have no symbol for 0, you start with Ⅻ.
Ⅻ ⅩⅠ Ⅰ Ⅹ ⅠⅠ Ⅸ Ⅲ Ⅷ ⅠⅠⅠⅠ Ⅶ Ⅵ Ⅴ
HistoryThe American mathematician Claude Shannon (1916 - 2001) invented a computer with roman numerals called THROBAC. |