Talk:Roman numerals

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This article has been mentioned by a media organization:

"Library Clock Has 'IIII' Instead of 'IV'". AP Strange News. July 2, 2004.

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Edit request for roman numerals

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Please see MCM and read right to left

MCM

M1100

100 or -100

Please indicate such ambiguities ^SOMEwherein the page

^[1]

References

^ no sources

Thank you for listening!

Not done for now: You'll still need reliable sources to back up that claim. I'm sure you can find one somewhere. ⸺(Random)staplers 17:13, 3 September 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Edit request § Other additive forms

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... and there are instances such as IIIIII and XXXXXX rather than VI or LX.
→ change to →
... and there are also instances of IIIIII and XXXXXX substituting for VI or LX.

24.19.113.134 (talk) 22:52, 6 September 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Not done That would be misleading. The Romans used both forms; we should not indicate that either IIIIII and XXXXXX or VI and LX were mere substitutes, and these are examples rather than the only such instances. NebY (talk) 23:08, 6 September 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Ok thanks @NebY, but that's because I misunderstood (from the existing text) that the appearance on "tombstones" was exclusively a post-Roman usage, especially considering the context of the previous paragraph. If it is instead as you say, that it is a genuine Roman usage, then perhaps the section could clarify this somehow, for example by swapping the ordering of the last two paragraphs of Roman numerals § Other additive forms 24.19.113.134 (talk) 23:50, 6 September 2024 (UTC)[reply]

You're right - we had two paragraphs about ancient uses, two paras about modern ones, and then jumped back in time with that last one. I've moved it to follow the first two. Thanks. NebY (talk) 17:27, 7 September 2024 (UTC)[reply]

edit request: possibly problematic picture placement

The article begins:

Roman numerals ... are written with combinations of letters from the Latin alphabet, each letter with a fixed integer value. Modern style uses only these seven:

I	V	X	L	C	D	M
1	5	10	50	100	500	1000

However, with my phone in portrait page orientation instead of landscape, the page shows File:CuttySarkRomNum.jpg before the seven letters and their Arabic numeral "translations", so the article seems to say:

Roman numerals ... are written with combinations of letters from the Latin alphabet, each letter with a fixed integer value. Modern style uses only these seven:

XXII

XXI

XX

XIX

XVIII

XVII

XVI

XV

XIV

XIII

Please move the picture to prevent the article from displaying in such a confusing, misleading way, realizing that the display is prone to change based on what device a reader uses and if the user tilts the device this way or that (and possibly also depending on what browser and zoom settings are in use).

Thanks. Wishing you safe, happy, productive editing. --173.67.42.107 (talk) 07:09, 25 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

There is a mistake in the first image caption

In the caption of the first image on the page, it says "Roman numerals on stern of the ship Cutty Sark showing draught in feet." There should be a "The" before stern: "Roman numerals forward on the stern of Cutty Sark, showing draught in feet." Also, just "stern" of a ship is vague and could also be corrected to "Roman numerals forward of the rudder on Cutty Sark, showing draught in feet." 98.3.113.56 (talk) 00:00, 6 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

(While adding "Missing Modern Usage" section, below.) The nomenclature of bits of ships is complex. Doubly so, and the province of the Internet Pedant, for shipping technologies that have been commercially extinct for well over a century. I can work out where you mean this is written on the ship, but what it's name in an era when steel bar or tube as a rudder pivot wasn't available ... I dread to think. These wooden rudders had to have a lower pivot point (so, needed a shirt, stiff extension from the keel) because their wooden (braced with wrought iron strips) rudder posts weren't stiff enough to take steerage forces with just an upper pivot. But what the hell to call such a structure ... I'd ask a Professor of Nautical Engineering I used to correspond with, but he only worked with steel and concrete constructions so probably wouldn't know the terms in the wooden world. AKarley (talk) 20:25, 31 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Missing modern usage

In discussion of "modern" "usage", it is perverse to exclude the use of Roman numerals (albeit, "butchered") in the output of modern computer languages like INTERCAL (reference https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/INTERCAL#Syntax , but there are other INTERCAL documents scattered over the Web. And on Gopher. This is because it is a uniformly accessible format - equally inconvenient for all users (unless you happen to be an ancient Roman computer programmer ; which is convenient since it also means you're dead and unlikely to lord it over your digitally encumbered associates).

Is there a "template" which would drive the point home by, for example, only making the section visible on dates including, say, "IV-I" (ISO 8601, butchered, format). This would make it equally inconvenient for all users.

AKarley (talk) 20:25, 31 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

[1] sources

[1]