![]() ![]() ![]() ħ Louis XIV, king of France, preferred IIII over IV, ordering his clock makers to produce clocks with IIII and not IV, and thus it has remained. Usually only three identical symbols can be used consecutively to express numbers beginning with a 4 or a 9, a symbol is placed before one of greater value to subtract its valuee.g., IV 1 + 5 4, XC 10 + 100 90, and MCMLXXXIX 1,000 100 + 1,000 + 50 + 10 + 10 + 10 1 +10 1,989. This would add to the clock’s radial symmetry.Ħ IV is difficult to read upside down and on an angle, particularly at that location on the clock. (Read The Alphabet by David Sacks for the explanation of why Roman letters lacked J and U.)ĥ The I symbol would be the only symbol in the first 4 hours of the clock, the V symbol would only appear in the next 4 hours, and the X symbol only in the last 4 hours. ![]() The alternative uses seventeen Is, five Vs, and four Xs, possibly requiring the clock maker to have several different moulds.ģ IIII was the preferred way for the ancient Romans to write 4, since they, to a ilarge extent, avoided subtraction.Ĥ It has been suggested that since IV is the first two letters of IVPITER (Jupiter), the main god of the Romans, it was not appropriate to use IV as a number. The numeral IIX and one of the IXs can be rearranged or inverted to form XI and XII. There are several suggested explanations for this, several of which may be true :ġ The four-character form IIII creates a visual symmetry with the VIII on the other side, which IV would not.Ģ The number of symbols on the clock totals twenty Is, four Vs, and four Xs, so clock makers need only a single mould with five Is, a V, and an X in order to make the correct number of numerals for the clocks, cast four times for each clock : Ĭlock faces that are labelled using Roman numerals conventionally show IIII for 4 o’clock and IX for 9 o’clock, using the subtractive principle in one case and not in the other. For years I’ve wondered why the number 4 on a i Roman numeral watch or clock is-most often than not-represented by IIII and not i IV. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |