Did cultures that used Roman numerals know how to count on their fingers?
The Romans counted like this: I II III IIII V V represented a hand of five fingers. It continues: VI VII VIII VIIII X X represents two V’s back to back. Wait, you say, what happened to IV for four and so on? That was invented as shorthand for IIII long after the Romans. It’s a shortcut which is stupid. The Romans didn’t care what order the letters came in. This makes multiplication easy- the only times tables you have to know is: one of anything is itself. X times X is C C times X is M V times X is L L times X is D V times V is XXV L times L is MMD L times V is CCL So that’s seven products to learn, against roughly 45 products to learn for modern children, including 7 times 8 and 6 times 9!
