What Are Roman Numerals?
Roman numerals are defined as a special way of representing numbers with the help of Latin or Roman letters. Roman numerals were first used almost 2000 years ago in Rome.
Here are some numbers along with their representation in Roman numerals:
- 1 is represented as I
- 2 is represented as II
- 3 is represented as III
- 4 is represented as IV
- 5 is represented as V
How Do We Write Numbers as Roman Numerals?
The seven letter method is used to represent numbers as Roman numerals. The different combinations of these letters form Roman numerals for all numerical values.
Roman numerals are expressed in either ‘uppercase’ or ‘lowercase’ letters.
When a numeral is followed by a value that is equal or lesser, their values are added together. For example, ⅩⅤⅠ in Roman numerals represents 16 when written as a natural number. Here, Ⅹ corresponds to 10, that we add with ⅤⅠ, which corresponds to 6.
When a numeral is followed by a greater value, the values are subtracted. For example, the numeral ⅩⅬ is written as 40 as a natural number, where Ⅹ corresponds to 10 and Ⅼ corresponds to 50. Here, we are subtracting the smaller value from the larger numeral to get the value, that is Ⅼ-Ⅹ or 50 – 10.
Listing Roman Numerals from 1 to 50.
The chart depicts natural numbers and their corresponding Roman numerals from 1 to 50.
ⅩⅤⅠ as a Roman Numeral
Let’s represent the Roman numeral, ⅩⅤⅠ in the form of a natural number.
Here, Ⅹ appears first followed by ⅤⅠ.
The numeric value of Ⅹ is 10.
The numeric value of ⅤⅠ is 6.
As we have learned, we will add the values as the greater number appears before the smaller number.
Now, we will add the values.
10 + 6 = 16
So, ⅩⅤⅠ represents the number 16.
Solved Examples
Example 1: Express ⅩⅩⅠ as a natural number.
Solution:
As we can see, Ⅹ appears twice followed by Ⅰ. Thus, these values will be added as the greater value is followed by the smaller value.
Now, the corresponding value of Ⅹ is 10.
The corresponding value of Ⅰ is 1.
So, 10 + 10 + 1 = 21
Hence, the corresponding numerical value of ⅩⅩⅠ is 21.
Example 2: Find the value of ⅩⅩⅤ + ⅩⅥ.
Solution:
We can find the corresponding values of ⅩⅩⅤ and ⅩⅥ from the chart and accordingly find the total.
The corresponding value of ⅩⅩⅤ is 25
The corresponding value of ⅩⅥ is 16.
Hence, 25 + 16 = 41
So, the numerical value of ⅩⅩⅤ+ⅩⅥ is 41.
Example 3: Find the Roman numeral that represents 26.
Solution:
We can simplify the number into tens and ones. As a result, 26 can be written as 10 + 10 + 6.
Now, we will write the corresponding Roman numerals for these numbers.
Ⅹ is the corresponding Roman numeral for 10.
Ⅵ is the corresponding Roman numeral for 6.
10 + 10 + 6 implies Ⅹ+Ⅹ+Ⅵ in Roman numerals.
So, the Roman numeral for 26 is ⅩⅩⅥ.
Roman numerals are rarely put to use nowadays. They are generally used in analog clocks, and to number the topics or chapters in the index pages or the first few pages of books. Roman numerals are used by kings, queens, and popes as well, as a suffix to their names.
XII, XXV, XVI, and XL are a few examples of Roman numerals.
Roman numerals are expressed by letters of the Latin or Roman alphabet in either uppercase or lowercase letters.