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Roman numbers suck

Tags:Linguistics number OddsnEnds Research symbol

Laputan Logic - Spreadsheet came to the conclusion that the antient Romans did:

Roman numerals totally suck!

Pretty much any number system people came up with in the history can deal with small numbers. What became difficult was dealing with arbitrarily large numbers. The complicated rules in the Greek system and the even more complex rules and guesswork involved in the Roman system highlight the difficult evolutionary path of symbolic systems. Finally, the Babylonian system, which was base-60, was internally more consist than the Greek and the Roman ways.

Here are some books on the history and evlution of number systems:

From One to Zero: A Universal History of Numbers by Ifrah G posted to history number symbolic_system by garyfeng as on 2006-02-23 04:03:03
The Universal History of Numbers : From Prehistory to the Invention of the Computer by Ifrah G posted to history number symbol_system by garyfeng as on 2006-02-23 04:00:02
The Story of Our Numbers: The History of Arabic Numerals (Powermath) by King Z posted to history number symbol_system by garyfeng as on 2006-02-23 03:56:52
The Mystery of Numbers (Oxford Paperbacks) by Schimmel A posted to history number symbolic_system by garyfeng as on 2006-02-23 03:55:54
Number Words and Number Symbols : A Cultural History of Numbers by Menninger K posted to counting history number symbol symbol_system by garyfeng as and 1 other … yish on 2006-02-23 03:55:18
The Story of Numbers : How Mathematics Has Shaped Civilization by Mcleish J posted to history math number symbolic_system symbols by garyfeng as on 2006-02-23 03:54:20

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 22nd, 2006 at 11:12 pm and is filed under Research, Odds'n'Ends, Linguistics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site. Edit this entry.

Roman numbers suck

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