Numeral Information
Roman Numerals
Roman numerals are a numeral system that originated in ancient Rome and remained the usual way of writing numbers throughout Europe well into the Late Middle Ages. Numbers are written with combinations of letters from the Latin alphabet, each with a fixed integer value. The modern style uses only these seven:
Decimal Numbers (Arabic Numerals)
Arabic numerals, commonly known as the digits 0-9, are a numerical system that plays a crucial role in mathematics and commerce worldwide today. Despite their name, these numerals were not originally used by Arabs; instead, they have roots tracing back to ancient India.
Chinese Numerals
Chinese numerals consist of characters for 0 through 9, and also have special characters for 10, 100, 1000, and 10,000.
The Chinese numbers one through ten are: 一 (yī), 二 (èr), 三 (sān), 四 (sì), 五 (wǔ), 六 (liù), 七 (qī), 八 (bā), 九 (jiǔ), and 十 (shí).
100: 百 (bǎi) | 1,000: 千 (qiān)
Other Numeral Systems
Binary (Base-2)
Uses only 0 and 1. Fundamental to computer science and digital electronics. Example: 1010₂ = 10₁₀
Hexadecimal (Base-16)
Uses digits 0-9 and letters A-F. Commonly used in computing for memory addresses and color codes. Example: FF₁₆ = 255₁₀
Octal (Base-8)
Uses digits 0-7. Historically used in computing, though less common today. Example: 77₈ = 63₁₀
Babylonian (Base-60)
Ancient system using base-60, still reflected in our time measurement (60 seconds, 60 minutes). Used cuneiform symbols.
Mayan (Base-20)
Ancient Mesoamerican system using base-20 with a sub-base of 5. Used dots and bars to represent numbers.