Monday, 7 January 2013
xlix = 49
I just got confused about the baroque numbering of the preface of Narrow Roads of Gene Land, Vol. 2. Page 49 of the preface, for example, is given as xlix and I'm pretty sure that must be il instead. But what about xix (19) or xxxix (39)? Wouldn't it be simpler to write them as ixx and xil respectively? I'm confused.
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I was taught to write Roman Numerals in a way that matches all of your examples, rather than your suggested alternatives. However, as far as I know there are no known "rules" but only a set of modern conventions for choosing among the possible alternatives. Probably the best-known example is 1999, which could validly be written as: MDCCCCLXXXXVIIII, MCMXCIX, or MIM. Modern convention specifies the second one, but you would presumably choose the third.
ReplyDeleteThanks for clarifying. With the convention (gleaned from Wikipedia) of breaking our numerals into digits and then translate them separately, one really does get the Roman numerals as in the preface. For example, break 49 into 4 tenners + 9 ones, then translate both summands separately yields: 40+9 = xl+ix = xlix. Fortunately, most prefaces are not that long.
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