Roman Numbers for kids - how did the Romans write numbers? what problems did Roman numbers cause for them?

Roman Numbers

The Romans used several different systems for writing numbers. Sometimes they wrote numbers like this: I II III IV V and other times they used the Greek numbers. The Roman numbers were not always written the same way, either - people knew what you meant even if you did it a little differently. Here's a table showing all of the Roman numerals.


I
1
                   
L
50
II
2

C
100
III
3

D
500
IV (or IIII)
4

M
1000
V
5



VI
6



VII
7



VIII
8



IX (or VIIII)
9



X
10





So MMIII is 2003, and XXIV is 24, and CLVII is 157. (Putting a bigger number like V after a smaller number like I means "1 less than 5" or 4).

Try writing these numbers in Roman numbers (see the second page for the answers):

314

26

1975

2010

Indian numbers
Second page of Roman Numbers
Main Roman Science page



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