4 ms·
Roman numerals did not have a zero. It could only be used to represent counting numbers between 1 and 3999. As abstraction s go it failed to accommodate a lar
by CyberFonic 11y ago
Roman numerals did not have a zero. It could only be used to represent counting numbers between 1 and 3999. As abstraction s go it failed to accommodate a large number of situations that Arabic numbers could.
- AnimalMuppet 11y agoI don't think that's right. Roman numerals allowed a bar over the number to indicate that it was multiplied by a thousand. One million, for example, was an M with a bar over it. I agree about "counting numbers", though. So far as I know, it was impossible to represent fractions or decimals in Roman numerals.
- davelnewton 11y agoThey used `S` for "half", with dots for additional fractions of twelve. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_numerals#Fractions https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_numerals#Fractions And here I thought I'd never need to know that.