Roman numbers

 I was doing some recall on programming fundamentals. I can't really remember all of what I have learnt during Uni. Before that, computer class was compulsory from Sec 1 to 3. It didn't ring a bell and I didn't do well. Partly, language barrier. Mostly, I don't know. Most of the time, we memorize stuff. I did enjoy the practical part whereby we used the computer to draw using a turtle in the middle, tried typing into command prompt or is it MS-DOS? as the teacher called out the command (like dir, clear - the only two I remember until now. Only that one class.), BASIC (the colorful screen), and finally, Microsoft office.  Most of the time, it is all theory. I think learning in that way can make you remember things the hard way. It is like muscle memory but didn't mean anything to you.

Another long story short, the reason I am here is because of Roman numbers.

I

II

III

IV

V

VI

VII

VIII

IX

X

While looking at bytes, bits and binary, I was brought to this page. Suddenly, I was thinking about how people come up with this numbers.

To increase, add an I to the right like:

I

II

III

BUT stop here. Counting comes in a group of 5. so before 5, minus 1. To minus 1, prefix an I. Note the I.

IV

V

After 5 is 6. Add 1. Suffix an I. Stop at 10 which is another set of 5. V is 5, X is 10

VI

VII

VIII

IX

X

After 10 is 11.

XI

XII

XIII

XIV

XV

XVII

XVIII

XIX

XX

I used to stop at 10 because I memorized it and forget when I don't use it. Now, I can make it up to 20 without memorizing. Only letters to remember is actually I, V and X

https://englishstudypage.com/grammar/roman-numerals/

This link goes to a page that list out all the romans numbers.

SO up to 30, everything is still the same. Until 40.

50 is L

so 40 is XL (50 - 10 so put a prefix of X)

60 is 10 more than L (50 + 10 so put a suffix of X) LX

70 LXX

80 LXXX

90 ? We have to find out what's 100.

100 is C, so 90 is XC (100 - 10).

Human make things to make things work. I guess the teacher who taught me roman numbers doesn't know this. Neither do I until I looked at the overall structure.