Roman Numerals and Decimal Points.

[Squidgey]

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.

[Rogue 9]

Science and Logic, actually.

[Josh]

And so moved.

[Squidgey]

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

Okay thanks guys.

[Josh]

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

Okay thanks guys.

Not a prob. I'm sure somebody will be along to take a crack at it soon.

[Rukia]

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.

Ok here's something I found... it may or may not help.. but I'm pretty sure it's what you're looking for to some extent....

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/

http://mathforum.org/library/drmath/view/52552.html


Any help? Let me know.....

[Surlethe]

AFAIK, the Romans only used positive integers with their number systems. In any case, if, as Rukia posted, they also used fractions, it still won't work for pi because pi is irrational and transcendental.

Though you might somehow manage to work out a series of integers converging to pi ...

i.e., π = √[6*(I/I + I/IV + I/IX + I/XVI + I/XXV + I/XXXVI + ... )]

[elderdan]

At a practical level, it's important to remember that there was probably not a single thing in the entire lifespan of Latin as a living language that needed approximation to more than about four decimal places, and four decimal places can be pretty easily handled with fractions. Googling around a bit on pi in the ancient world suggests that the Egyptians just used 256/81 to represent it, which is a bit high. 22/7 is the rough approximation I've always heard, and it wouldn't surprise me if the Romans had something at least that good.

--The Elder Dan

(EDIT because durrrrr, Latin is the language, Roman is the culture.)

[xBlackFlash]

Once my Alg 2 teacher pissed me off, so I took an entire exam with only roman numerals. I used greek letters for variables when needed, and took every decimal I needed and found an obscene fraction that she had to check. She graded it, and I aced it. But I was left with a warning to not try that again.

[Squidgey]

Thanks for the responses, and sorry for the extremely long time to respond.

The Fractional Roman Numerals is the logical way to write it, so yeah, that's cool, but it still isn't as dynamic as writing a total crap load of numbers all in one long row...

And xBlackFlash, all I can say is you smart ass, and well done!