[SunkenCiv]

full title: Counting On Progress: Roman numerals were fine for adding and subtracting. Fibonacci saw that complex math required a better system.

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The Man of Numbers: Fibonacci's Arithmetic Revolution by Keith Devlin

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[The KG9 Kid]

Yeah, but try long division with Roman numerals.

[skr]

As nifty as Roman numerals look, they take up way too much room.

[smokingfrog]

Roman Numerals

[allmost]

Good post to question why IV is substituted with IIII on numeral clocks. I’ve heard theories. They all end with pompous displays and/or material saving.

[muir_redwoods]

So what sort of numerals did the Greeks use at about the time Romans were using roman numerals?

[Condor51]

Huh?!? I just thought of something (duh) that I should have 40+ years ago. That is without decimals or fractions using Roman Numerals, all that marvelous Roman Construction, like the Colosseum in Rome, was a real task -- and *prolly almost* impossible to duplicate today.

Their 'Blueprints' (aka: construction drawings) and buildings all had to be in whole numbers. And in my 45 years in Drafting and Engineering, and 41 years in the Commercial Construction 'bidness', I've never seen it.

Granted expecting something to actually be constructed to an 1/8" of inch is a bit much in 'the real world', but none the less that's how Architects and Structural Engineers have it on their design drawings (Blueprints).

And believe it or not, but sometimes - and getting more common now - us in the construction trades fight over 1/2" of space above the ceiling to install our work.

'Way back when' we joked that 'it wasn't Rocket Science'. Well... the tolerances are getting there as the taller a building is per floor height, the more it costs the owner. And those costs now are 'HUGH'.