On Thu, 17 Feb 2005 17:51:59 -0500, Jeff Wisnia wrote:

Rich Grise wrote:
On Thu, 17 Feb 2005 13:21:21 -0600, DanG wrote:


I am sure others will point out that the Roman numeral L stands
for 50
XL would give 40
XLIX would give 49

But inquiring minds would like to know if
IL would work?


There are those who say that it's bad form to subtract anything
but the next lower "denomination" from a given symbol, i.e.,
XL, 40 plus IX, 9, gives 49. But you can't do VL for 45 or IL for
49. I think XC works for 90, but not IC for 99 or VC for 95.

I've always wanted to see a step by step example of how a long division
problem with a couple of "not too easy" numbers is solved in the Roman
numeral system. Can someone show me/us one?

When I was a kid, there was a series of books either by Time-Life or
Bell Labs/Disney or something, with all kinds of interesting scientific
stuff. In the volume on numbers, there's a cartoon of a guy trying to
do long division in Roman numerals. ISTR that after filling up a whole
page (like filling up a whole blackboard in a comic strip) the guy
gives up. :-)

The ancient Hebrew numeral system is even simpler as only addition is
needed to determine the full value, there's no subtraction of lower
denominations located to the left of higher ones. If interested, see:

http://www.answers.com/topic/hebrew-numerals


Jeff