Super Bowl's Roman numeral is Greek to kids

Kids LOL and OMG each other all the livelong day, but ask them to decipher the XLVI of this year’s Super Bowl and you might as well be talking Greek. [Read more]

To the Editor [New York Times]:
[...] Think about the Roman numeral system for a moment:
It does not operate in base 10 or, for that matter, on any other base. It is merely a sophisticated system of tally marks that does not use place notation at all.

(For a quick tutorial, go to Roman Numerals 101)

This is why Roman numerals are so cumbersome in calculations; try multiplying XXXVIII by XLIV. The decimal system we use originated in India and came to Europe by way of the Islamic world. To the 13th-century Italian mathematician Leonardo Fibonacci seems to get credit for having been the first European to adopt this Arabic numeral System.

Terrance P. Kelly
Princeton, NJ
Aug. 25, 1991
The writer is a Princeton U. student.

Ihor C replies:
Well, Mr. Kelly we have a solution to your problem with the Roman system. An actual Roman Numeral Calculator comes to the rescue! No problem getting the answer to your multiplication challenge. Just click on calculator below and do it!
Computer Romanvs - Calculating as the Romans would have liked to do if they had our technology.

Now that we have a calculator for Roman Numerals shall we return to the ways of the Romans and adopt their system again? You know we are (still?) trying to change our measurements to the metric system. So why not do the same for the Roman system?