Roman Numerals
How can I know all the roman numerals off by heart?
From time to time in tests I get asked to write a roman numeral. I find this so hard though cause I don't remember any roman numerals off by heart, except for II, II, III, IV and the simple numbers.
So how can I remember them off by heart?
You should NOT be learning Roman numerals by heart.
Memorize the meaning of these, noticing the sequence!
I V X L C D M,
which mean
1 5 10 50 100 500 1000
Here's a memory aid: I (eye) LOOKS LIKE A ONE,
X is the third letter of the French word for ten: dix,
C (cee) is the slang name for a 100-dollar bill (C-note),
and the first letter of the metric abbreviation for centimeter,
the 100th part of a meter,
M (em) is the metric system abbreviation for 1000, or
the first letter of the metric abbreviation for millimeter,
the 1000th part of a meter.
If those aids don't help you, just forget them.
After you MEMORIZE those (that might take you 10 minutes), then...
You must know that the simplest RULE in Roman numerals is that letters ADD up to make a modern number. This is obvious for the number 1, 2, and 3. It should be obvious for the numbers 10, 20, and 30: the letter for ten, repeated. And so on, for hundreds or thousands.
We use the same rule of adding for the numbers 6,7 and 8, which are
VI, VII, and VIII. This is a bit easier than writing 6,7, or 8 Is (eyes) in a row. Notice that for these single digit modern numbers, the Roman I, the SMALLER value, follows the Roman V, the larger number.
Someone MUST have told you that, just like we put bigger numbers to left of smaller (1000 is always put before 100 to make 1100), so the same is true for big Roman numerals. (M is ALWAYS to the left of C, and C is ALWAYS to the left of X, and X is ALWAYS to the left of I.)
Do you see the full set of Roman letters are in pairs, with the 2nd being 5 times the first in the pair?
You don't have any trouble remembering this sequence in modern decimals, do you?
1 10 100 1000
The pairs in Roman numerals are each associated with ONE of the numbers in the sequence above.
Now learn and memorize the RULES for constructing a number in modern decimals that has ONE significant digit. That means, the numbers
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 or the same digits with
1 zero after them or
2 zeros or
3 zeros.
The RULES are:
If the number starts with a 4, it is ALWAYS made up of the letter for ONE in front of (meaning subtracted from) the letter from the SAME PAIR for FIVE? And this is true for the numbers with a zero or zeros after it?
Do you see that if the number starts with a 9, it is ALWAYS made up of the letter for ONE in front of (subtracted from) the letter for the NEXT number (from the next PAIR) that starts with ONE?
With these rules you can construct the Roman version of 400 or 90 or 4000.
To ADD these things together (to make 4034, for instance), take the number for 4000, and follow it with the Roman number 30, and follow that with the number for 4. The Roman equivalent of digits (which may be a sequence of up to 3 letters that are added OR 2 letters that are subtracted) are simply added together when they are put together.
When converting a modern decimal number, convert each digit starting at the left, and string the converted results together. (Notice that zeroes don't get converted.)
P.S. - The proper name for modern decimal numbers is Arabic numerals. The system we use (ten one-digit numerals, including a zero, placed in descending sequence, left to right), was used in the Arab or Arabian lands (who copied it from India) before Europe.
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