Counting in Roman numerals. Arabic numerals

The Roman numbering system using letters has been common in Europe for two thousand years. Only in the late Middle Ages it was replaced by a more convenient decimal system of numbers, borrowed from the Arabs. But, until now, Roman numerals denote dates on monuments, time on clocks and (in the Anglo-American typographic tradition) pages of book prefaces. In addition, in Russian, it is customary to designate ordinal numbers with Roman numerals.

7 letters were used to designate numbers Latin alphabet: I = 1, V = 5, X = 10, L = 50, C = 100, D = 500, M = 1000. Intermediate numbers were formed by adding a few letters to the right or left. First, thousands and hundreds were written, then tens and ones. Thus, the number 24 was depicted as XXIV. The horizontal line above the symbol meant multiplication by a thousand.

Natural numbers are written by repeating these digits. At the same time, if a large number is in front of a smaller one, then they are added (the principle of addition), if the smaller one is in front of the larger one, then the smaller one is subtracted from the larger one (the principle of subtraction). Last Rule is used only to avoid the fourfold repetition of the same digit. For example, I, X, C are placed respectively before X, C, M to denote 9, 90, 900 or before V, L, D to denote 4, 40, 400. For example, VI \u003d 5 + 1 \u003d 6, IV \u003d 5 - 1 = 4 (instead of IIII). XIX = 10 + 10 - 1 = 19 (instead of XVIIII), XL = 50 - 10 = 40 (instead of XXXX), XXXIII = 10 + 10 + 10 + 1 + 1 + 1 = 33, etc.

Performing arithmetic operations on multi-digit numbers in this notation is very inconvenient. The system of Roman numerals is not currently used, with the exception, in some cases, of the designation of centuries (XV century, etc.), years AD. e. (MCMLXXVII etc.) and months when indicating dates (for example, 1.V.1975), ordinal numbers, and sometimes derivatives of small orders, greater than three: yIV, yV, etc.

Roman numerals often cause us difficulty.
But it is they that are usually used when numbering centuries and book chapters, when designating clothing sizes and steps in music.
Roman numerals are in our life. So it's too early to give them up. Easier to learn, understand and learn. What's more, it's easy.
So, to designate numbers in Latin, combinations of the following 7 characters are accepted: I (1), V (5), X (10), L (50), C (100), D (500), M (1000).
Why were Latin letters chosen to represent the numbers 5, 50, 100, 500 and 1000? It turns out that these are not Latin letters, but completely different characters. The fact is that the basis for the Latin alphabet (and it, by the way, exists in several versions - 23, 24 and 25 letters) was the Western Greek alphabet.

Thus, the three characters L, C, and M go back to the Western Greek alphabet. Here they denoted aspirated sounds, which were not in the Latin language. When the Latin alphabet was being formed, it was they who turned out to be superfluous. And they were adapted to denote numbers in the Latin script. Later, their spelling coincided with Latin letters. So, the sign C (100) became similar to the first letter of the Latin word centum (one hundred), and M - (1000) - to the first letter of the word mille (thousand). As for the sign D (500), it was half of the sign F (1000), and then it became similar to a Latin letter. The sign V (5) was only the upper half of the sign X (10).
In this regard, by the way, the popular theory that the name of the church office of the Pope (Vicarius Filii Dei), when replacing letters with Roman numerals, adds up to the “devil's number”, seems funny.

So, how to understand the Latin numbers?
If the sign denoting a smaller number is to the right of the sign denoting more, then the smaller is added to the larger; if on the left, then subtract:
VI - 6, i.e. 5+1
IV - 4, i.e. 5-1
LX - 60, i.e. 50+10
XL - 40, i.e. 50-10
CX - 110 i.e. 100+10
XC - 90, i.e. 100-10
MDCCCXII - 1812, i.e. 1000+500+100+100+100+10+1+1.

There may be different meanings for the same number. So, the number 80 can be represented as LXXX (50+10+10+10) and as XXC(100-20).
Basic Roman numerals look like this:
I (1) - unus (unus)
II(2) - duo (duo)
III(3) - tres (tres)
IV (4) - quattuor (quattuor)
V (5) - quinque (quinque)
VI(6) - sex (sex)
VII (7) - septem (septem)
VIII (8) - octo (octo)
IX (9) - novem (novem)
X (10) - decem (decem), etc.

XX (20) - viginti (viginti)
XXI (21) - unus et viginti or viginti unus
XXII (22) - duo et viginti or viginti duo, etc.
XXVIII (28) - duodetriginta (duodetriginta)
XXIX (29) - undetriginta (undetriginta)
XXX (30) - triginta (triginta)
XL (40) - quadraginta (quadraginta)
L (50) - quinquaginta (quinquaginta)
LX (60) - sexaginta (sexaginta)
LXX (70) - septuaginta (septuaginta)
LXXX (80) - octoginta (octoginta)
XC (90) - nonaginta (nonaginta)
C (100) - centum (centum)
CC (200) - ducenti (ducenti)
CCC (300) - trecenti (trecenti)
CD (400) - quadrigenti (quadrigenti)
D (500) - quingenti (quingenti)
DC (600) - sexcenti (seccenti)
DCC (700) - septigenti (septigenti)
DCCC(800) - octingenti (octigenti)
CM (DCCCC) (900) - nongenti (nongenti)
M (1000) - mille (mille)
MM (2000) - duo milia (duo milia)
V (5000) - quinque milia (quinque milia)
X (10000) - decem milia (decem milia)
XX (20000) - viginti milia (viginti milia)
C (1000000) - centum milia (centum milia)
XI (1000000) - decies centena milia (decies centena milia)"

Elena Dolotova.

This page contains beautiful Arabic numerals, which are not typed from the keyboard. They can be copied and pasted where the font cannot be changed (in social networks). In addition to the numbers used by Europeans, there are also real ones - those that are used by the Arabs themselves. And for the kit, let them immediately lie down and Roman numerals and Indian. There will not be asked, I hope. All of them are from Unicode, you can learn more about them by entering them into the search on the site.

Arabic:

① ② ③ ④ ⑤ ⑥ ⑦ ⑧ ⑨ ⑩ ⑪ ⑫ ⑬ ⑭ ⑮ ⑯ ⑰ ⑱ ⑲ ⑳

❶ ❷ ❸ ❹ ❺ ❻ ❼ ❽ ❾ ❿ ⓫ ⓬ ⓭ ⓮ ⓯ ⓰ ⓱ ⓲ ⓳ ⓴ ⓿ ❶ ❷ ❸ ❹ ❺ ❻ ❼ ❽ ❾ ❿

⓵ ⓶ ⓷ ⓸ ⓹ ⓺ ⓻ ⓼ ⓽ ⓾

¼ ½ ¾ ⅐ ⅑ ⅒ ⅓ ⅔ ⅕ ⅖ ⅗ ⅘ ⅙ ⅚ ⅛ ⅜ ⅝ ⅞ ⅟

⑴ ⑵ ⑶ ⑷ ⑸ ⑹ ⑺ ⑻ ⑼ ⑽ ⑾ ⑿ ⒀ ⒁ ⒂ ⒃ ⒄ ⒅ ⒆ ⒇

⒈ ⒉ ⒊ ⒋ ⒌ ⒍ ⒎ ⒏ ⒐ ⒑ ⒒ ⒓ ⒔ ⒕ ⒖ ⒗ ⒘ ⒙ ⒚ ⒛

𝟎 𝟏 𝟐 𝟑 𝟒 𝟓 𝟔 𝟕 𝟖 𝟗 𝟘 𝟙 𝟚 𝟛 𝟜 𝟝 𝟞 𝟟 𝟠 𝟡 𝟢 𝟣 𝟤 𝟥 𝟦 𝟧 𝟨 𝟩 𝟪 𝟫 𝟬 𝟭 𝟮 𝟯 𝟰 𝟱 𝟲 𝟳 𝟴 𝟵 𝟶 𝟷 𝟸 𝟹 𝟺 𝟻 𝟼 𝟽 𝟾 𝟿

Roman:

Ⅰ – 1 ; ⅩⅠ - 11

Ⅱ – 2 ; ⅩⅡ - 12

Ⅲ – 3 ; ⅩⅢ - 13

Ⅳ – 4 ; ⅩⅣ - 14

Ⅴ – 5 ; ⅩⅤ - 15

Ⅵ – 6 ; ⅩⅥ - 16

Ⅶ – 7 ; ⅩⅦ - 17

Ⅷ – 8 ; ⅩⅧ - 18

Ⅸ – 9 ; ⅩⅨ - 19

Ⅹ – 10 ; ⅩⅩ - 20

Ⅽ – 50 ; ⅩⅩⅠ - 21

Arabic for Arabs = Indian in Devanagari script = understandable to us

A bit of history. It is believed that the Arabic number system originated in India around the 5th century. Although, it is possible that even earlier and in Babylon. Arabic numerals are called because they came to Europe from the Arabs. First, in the Muslim part of Spain, and in the 10th century, Pope Sylvester II called for abandoning the cumbersome Latin record. A serious impetus to the spread of Arabic numerals was the translation into Latin language Al-Khwarizmi's book "On Indian Counting".

The Indo-Arabic system for writing numbers is decimal. Any number is made up of 10 characters. Unicode, by the way, uses hexadecimal numbers. It is more convenient than the Roman one because it is positional. In such systems, the value that a digit denotes depends on its position in the number. In the number 90, the number 9 means ninety, and in the number 951, nine hundred. In non-positional systems, character location does not play such a role. The Roman X means ten in both XII and MXC. Many nations recorded numbers in a similar non-positional way. Among the Greeks and among the Slavs, some letters of the alphabet also had a numerical value.

Roman numerals, invented over 2500 years ago, were used by Europeans for two millennia, then were replaced by Arabic numerals. This happened because Roman numerals are quite difficult to write down, and any arithmetic operations in the Roman system are much more difficult to perform than in the Arabic numeral system. Despite the fact that today the Roman system is not often used, this does not mean at all that it has become irrelevant. In most cases, centuries are denoted by Roman numerals, but years or exact dates usually written in Arabic numerals.

Roman numerals are also used when writing the serial numbers of monarchs, encyclopedic volumes, the valency of various chemical elements. The dials of wristwatches also often use Roman numerals.

Roman numerals are certain signs with which they write decimal places and their halves. Only seven capital letters of the Latin alphabet are used for this. The number 1 corresponds to the Roman numeral I, 5 - V, 10 - X, 50 - L, 100 - C, 500 - D, 1000 - M. When designating natural numbers these numbers are repeated. So 2 can be written using two times I, that is, 2 - II, 3 - three letters I, that is, 3 - III. If the smaller number comes before the larger one, then the subtraction principle is used (the smaller number is subtracted from the larger one). So, the number 4 is depicted as IV (that is, 5-1).

In the case when a large number is ahead of a smaller one, they are added, for example, 6 is written in the Roman system as VI (that is, 5 + 1).

If you are used to writing numbers in Arabic numerals, then some difficulties may arise when you need to write centuries in Roman numerals, any number or date. You can convert any number from the Arabic system to the Roman system and vice versa very easily and very quickly using a convenient converter on our website.

On the computer keyboard, just go to English language to easily write any number in Roman numerals.

Apparently, the ancient Romans preferred straight lines, so all their numbers are straight and strict. However, Roman numerals are nothing more than a simplified representation of fingers. human hand. The numbers from one to four resemble outstretched fingers, the number five can be compared with an open palm, where thumb protruding. And the number ten resembles two crossed arms. AT European countries when counting, it is customary to unbend your fingers, but in Russia, on the contrary, to bend.