OThe Roman Numerals system (Roman Figures or Roman Numbers) was developed in the Ancient Rome and it was used all over its empire. It is composed by seven capital letters of the Latin alphabet: I, V, X, L, C, D and M. The Roman Figures are mainly used in the following situations: chapters of a literary work, scenes of a theatre, names of Popes and Kings, dates of historical events, designation of conferences, olympics, meetings and so on.
Each one of the letters used in the Roman Numerals has also a certain value according to the following list:
Symbol | Correspondance |
---|---|
I | It corresponds to number 1 |
V | It corresponds to number 5 |
X | It corresponds to number 10 |
L | It corresponds to number 50 |
C | It corresponds to number 100 |
D | It corresponds to number 500 |
M | It corresponds to number 1000 |
Roman Numbers are formed according to the following set of rules:
Roman people didn’t know about zero which was introduced by the Arabic people after them. Thus, there is no way of representing this value. In some clocks, which show the time by means of Roman Figures, sometimes number 4 is written according to a more archaic way: IIII instead of IV. It happens due to several possible causes such as aesthetic or even because of religious reasons.
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