Posted On: Monday - August 26th 2019 8:34PM MST
In Topics: General Stupidity Humor History
While in Rome, you want to do as the Romans do, not as the Chinese tourists. I very much like their 2 millennia-old idea of not having to lug water around - water mains are your friend.
Roman numerals are a different story. What a crazy system! It was about a pretty presentation of numbers but not anything good for doing math. While we figured out the ages of buildings and engravings on the walls in Rome from the "I"s, "V"s, "X"s, "L"s, "C"s, "D"s. and "M"s, I thought about how a a Roman kid would have felt doing long division. Imagine being cooped up at 10 years old working out 20 problems like MCMLVII divided by XXV, instead of being outdoors in that nice Mediterranean climate playing Roman Ultimate Frisbee with the goats.
It's bad enough for a kid to have to do this stuff with our quite useable system of base-10 numbers, but Roman Numerals?? What in the Sam Hill were they thinking? We should count our blessings though, what with the aqueducts, sanitation, roads, Latin language roots, etc., but other than that stuff, I ask again:
What have the Romans ever done for us?!
Comments:
Robert
Wednesday - June 17th 2020 11:14PM MST
PS: Who cares about 'long' division? Is there even a 'short' division? These school marms will be the death of us. If you go to the market, each Roman Numeral stands for something consistent. An 'x' is 10 monetary units. You can see the number and lay your coins down.
The crazy system we have now, a '1' changes meaning depending on where it is! This was the beginning of the 'enlightened' relativism we all suffer under now!
The crazy system we have now, a '1' changes meaning depending on where it is! This was the beginning of the 'enlightened' relativism we all suffer under now!
Moderator
Tuesday - August 27th 2019 8:54AM MST
PS: "Thank God for the Arabs". Well, I wouldn't go that far ....
Bridget
Tuesday - August 27th 2019 7:53AM MST
PS
"Roman numerals are a different story. What a crazy system!"
Indeed. Thank God for the Arabs.
"Roman numerals are a different story. What a crazy system!"
Indeed. Thank God for the Arabs.
Now that's a new take on relativism, the use of powers of 10! For Christmas, if I can find it on Amazon, I will look for a Roman Numeral slide rule for you Robert. Good luck with ... all that ...
;-}