How did anyone do math in Roman numerals? (2017)

Re:How did anyone do math in Roman numerals? (2017) by rland on Monday July 27, 2020 @10:03PM (#23971590)

I wonder if arabic numerals really are the best system.

Too much inertia is invested in them now but I wonder if a yet easier representation exists. For example, I know that there was a brief push to use quaternions in physics.

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Re:How did anyone do math in Roman numerals? (2017) by ThrustVectoring on Monday July 27, 2020 @10:21PM (#23971688)

Base 12 is likely better than base 10. Twelve is the number of phalanges on your hand that you can touch with your thumb, so if that counting system had caught on and stuck we'd likely have a better base for divisibility.

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Re:How did anyone do math in Roman numerals? (2017) by Xelbair on Tuesday July 28, 2020 @05:07AM (#23973825)

if you add tip of the finger you can easily work in base 16.

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Re:How did anyone do math in Roman numerals? (2017) by User23 on Tuesday July 28, 2020 @12:53AM (#23972398)

Incidentally there are 12 inches in a foot.

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Re:How did anyone do math in Roman numerals? (2017) by tetris11 on Tuesday July 28, 2020 @12:45PM (#23977709)

Don't you mean the other way around

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Re:How did anyone do math in Roman numerals? (2017) by j88439h84 on Tuesday July 28, 2020 @03:37AM (#23973300)

Cool idea.

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