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Squidgey wrote:Yeah, I wasn't sure exactly, but come to think of it...yeah.

Okay thanks guys.

Squidgey wrote:Okay, I didn't know where to put this but this seemed the best place, mainly because numerical systems are an offshoot from a form of philosophy...in a way...maybe...bugger it.

Okay, so I wanted to write Pi, ie, 3.141592653589793238...etc etc in decimal places using Roman numerals.

But Roman numerals are standalnoe groupings of numbered symbols.

I can't stick 3.14159 because it doesn't make sense really in this particular case.

So, I'm told just now on the fly that somewhere there is a Roman Numeral Decimal System that was used by the Romans.

Does anyone know it? And if so, could you post up a summary of it and links etc to where I could go for more information.

Cheers,

Squidgey.

Decimals and Roman Numerals

Date: 10/22/98 at 03:21:16
From: Richard Collecutt
Subject: Roman numerals

Do you know of any method for representing Roman numerals in a
floating point format? For example, does 10.5 = X.V?

Date: 10/22/98 at 08:26:37
From: Doctor Rick
Subject: Re: Roman numerals

Hello, Richard.

The Romans didn't have a standard way of writing fractions (or decimals.)
Usually, they just wrote out the appropriate word, such as "tres septimae"
for three-sevenths.

When they needed to do serious calculations with fractions, the Romans
used the uncia, a unit that meant 1/12 of anything. There were names and
symbols for different multiples of the uncia. For example, six unciae,
or 6/12, made up the semis. The semis meant one-half, and its symbol
was an S cut in half (this looks a lot like a backward 2.) Unfortunately,
uncia symbols didn't follow any real system, and they were never entirely
standardized.

Jeff Miller's page on the "Earliest Uses of Symbols for Fractions and
Decimals" has more information about the uncia:

http://members.aol.com/jeff570/fractions.html

It's important also to understand that Roman numerals are not a place-
value system; there is no ones place, tens place, etc., so there is
no "place" for a decimal point. If I were to invent a system for
writing fractional quantities in Roman numerals, other than writing a
fraction with Roman numerals in the numerator and denominator, I would
take a cue from the method, occasionally seen, of writing a horizontal
bar over a Roman numeral to signify multiplication by 1000:
_
M = 1000 * 1000 = 1,000,000

and use, say, a bar under a Roman numeral to signify division by 1000.

- Doctors Rick and Ursula, The Math Forum
http://mathforum.org/dr.math/