Roman Numerals Can Be Challenging

Abstract

One of the prime needs of the elementary arithmetic today is good supplemental materials. This means material that will challenge our more capable student, thus increasing his interest in the subject and also give him a greater understanding of our In the first place we never figure with them. We only record numbers with them. In the second place, their use for recording purposes is for the most part confined to small numbers such as the numbering of hours on a clock face, of chapters in a book, of volumes in a set, and of kings of the same name.In the third place, all of the uses of Roman numerals are optional. Such being the case, the motive for their use in not utilitarian but aesthetic." Thus the social criterion is not the major purpose for teaching Roman numeration. Probably the most justifiable reason for teaching the Roman system is the aid it gives in developing a better understanding of our own Hindu-Arabic system. Also it helps to show that man worked long and hard to develop our present system and that no system is accidental but is planned.Some of the learnings of clarifications of learnings that can be derived from a study of the Roman system are: