3 ms·
There's a German idiom "turning an X into a U" (U being a V) with the origin about changing the number on a chalkboard recording your purchases in a pub. In a h
by wongarsu 4y ago
There's a German idiom "turning an X into a U" (U being a V) with the origin about changing the number on a chalkboard recording your purchases in a pub. In a hand-written contract you can do the opposite, adding two lines to turn a V into an X.
- hnbad 4y agoMore generally, a fun fact many miss about Roman numerals is that you can do this with all digits (except I because that would require fractions): X (10) -> V (5) C (100) -> L (50) M (1000) -> D (500) It's less obvious in prose like this but it helps if you consider that these numbers would normally be drawn with straight lines (e.g. M would often end up looking more like |X| instead of |V|, which explains why cutting it in half would result in |> or D). This is also a handy way of remembering the less frequently used digits like L or D which are harder to remember because they don't really stand for anything (unlike C = centum and M = mille).