3 ms·
I couldn't imagine what a baseless numbering system could be. A quick google showed that Roman numerals are baseless. I always assumed they were a form of base1
by yardie 17y ago
I couldn't imagine what a baseless numbering system could be. A quick google showed that Roman numerals are baseless. I always assumed they were a form of base10 and crazy shorthand.
- bad_user 17y agoI can't imagine what would be like to live with such a baseless numbering system ... life had to be much simpler for it to work. Like you didn't pay your taxes this month? Your possessions are confiscated or it's off with your head because calculating interest is too much work :) They probably used counting boards, and specific units for measurement ... like they knew the size of a legion in their army and said "we have 3 legions, with 2 other joining, that's 5 legions" instead of ~ "we have 12600 men, 8400 more are joining, that's 21000 men".
- Kadin 17y agoRoman numerals are best thought of less as a numbering system (as we think of our modern system) but a semi-overgrown counting system. If you start out with hashmarks and sort of let it evolve, you can see pretty easily how they got to what they had. It's obviously limiting but not entirely stupid, when put into context.