Roman Numerals

7 Roman Numerals

 You know that 2 + 2 = 4. But do you know that ii + ii = iv?

 The numbers that we normally use (1, 2, 3 etc) are called
 "Arabic numerals". But we sometimes use another system for
 writing numers - "Roman numerals". The Romans used letters
 of the alphabet to represent numbers, and you will
 occasionally see this system used for page numbers, clock
 faces, dates of movies etc.

 There are 7 letters used for Roman numerals:

 I = 1
 V = 5
 X = 10
 L = 50
 C = 100
 D = 500
 M = 1000

 In general, letters are placed in decreasing order of value,
 eg XVI = 16. Letters can be repeated one or two times to
 increase value, eg XX = 20, XXX = 30. Letters cannot be
 repeated three times, so XXXX is not used for 40. In this
 case, XL = 40 (50 minus 10).

 Here are two examples:
 The Introduction is on page vii.
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 You can see a list of Roman/Arabic numerals from 1-1000 at:
http://www.englishclub.com/vocabulary/numbers-roman.htm --

 Josef Essberger, Founder
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