Thread: Roman Numerals

Can you prove that any number is expessable in Roman Numerals?

Originally Posted by ThePerfectHacker

Can you prove that any number is expessable in Roman Numerals?

I dunno. How are you going to get past 3999? The way I learned is you can't repeat a letter more than three times. (Yes, I know some people didn't learn it that way!)

-Dan

Originally Posted by topsquark

I dunno. How are you going to get past 3999? The way I learned is you can't repeat a letter more than three times. (Yes, I know some people didn't learn it that way!)

-Dan

You can write,

Code:

__
IV

The bar means multiple by 1000

Originally Posted by ThePerfectHacker

You can write,

Code:

__
IV

The bar means multiple by 1000

And a double bar is x10^6? I see...

Well then, all you should need to be able to do is express any number from 1 to 1000. Then using one bar and "non-barred" numerals you will be able to get to 1,000,000. Then with two bars, one bar, and non-barred you can get to 10^9, etc. This isn't a formal proof (obviously) but one should easily be able to generate one from this.

-Dan

Well... It's the case with Sumerian, Egyptian, Babylonian etc numerals, that you can express any number with their help; The point is, symbolic notation would be too large, to be of any practical use.

But Babyonians rule; They could even denote decimals (in base 60), which makes their ideas on number very modern - or our ideas on number rather old...

Originally Posted by Rebesques

Well... It's the case with Sumerian, Egyptian, Babylonian etc numerals, that you can express any number with their help; The point is, symbolic notation would be too large, to be of any practical use.

But Babyonians rule; They could even denote decimals (in base 60), which makes their ideas on number very modern - or our ideas on number rather old...

I can do base 20 because I have that many fingers and toes.

-Dan

Well, the point remains, why they chose base 60...

Besides the ritual importance, it is a number you can easily chose a half, a third, a quarter, a fifth, a sixth, a tenth, a twelfth etc from.

That must have made commerse easier...