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Counting On Progress: Roman numerals were fine for adding and subtracting. Fibonacci saw that...
Wall St Journal ^ | Thursday, July 7, 2011 | reviewed by Alan Hirshfeld

Posted on 07/07/2011 9:17:30 PM PDT by SunkenCiv

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To: SunkenCiv
Huh?!? I just thought of something (duh) that I should have 40+ years ago. That is without decimals or fractions using Roman Numerals, all that marvelous Roman Construction, like the Colosseum in Rome, was a real task -- and *prolly almost* impossible to duplicate today.

Their 'Blueprints' (aka: construction drawings) and buildings all had to be in whole numbers. And in my 45 years in Drafting and Engineering, and 41 years in the Commercial Construction 'bidness', I've never seen it.

Granted expecting something to actually be constructed to an 1/8" of inch is a bit much in 'the real world', but none the less that's how Architects and Structural Engineers have it on their design drawings (Blueprints).

And believe it or not, but sometimes - and getting more common now - us in the construction trades fight over 1/2" of space above the ceiling to install our work.

'Way back when' we joked that 'it wasn't Rocket Science'. Well... the tolerances are getting there as the taller a building is per floor height, the more it costs the owner. And those costs now are 'HUGH'.

21 posted on 07/08/2011 5:14:39 AM PDT by Condor51 (The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits [A.Einstein])
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To: The KG9 Kid

That’s okay. 29 is never IXXX either. It’s always XXIX.


22 posted on 07/08/2011 7:07:17 AM PDT by TheOldLady (FReepmail me to get ON or OFF the ZOT LIGHTNING ping list.)
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To: SunkenCiv

Hummus with that?


23 posted on 07/08/2011 12:25:20 PM PDT by colorado tanker
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To: allmost

For that matter, why not IIIII instead of V? And wny not VV instead of X?


24 posted on 07/09/2011 2:15:15 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (Yes, as a matter of fact, it is that time again -- https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/)
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To: colorado tanker

I don’t know it, but hummus a few bars and I’ll fake it.


25 posted on 07/09/2011 2:15:55 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (Yes, as a matter of fact, it is that time again -- https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/)
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To: Condor51

The Romans also used a lot of concrete. For that matter, I agree with those who say the Egyptians used yet another form of concrete to build the Giza pyramids.

http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/davidovits/index


26 posted on 07/09/2011 2:57:45 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (Yes, as a matter of fact, it is that time again -- https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/)
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To: muir_redwoods

We should remember that what we call Roman numerals were called by the Romans, numerals. ;’) [insert Chinese food joke here]

Number systems were often peculiar to a town or an area; the Sumerians never had a single system for recording numbers, but rather used locally developed systems. Perhaps this shows how writing systems in general formed, and how recordkeeping only became abstract after abstract thinking had an interface and humans a way of expressing their abstractions.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/2527412/posts?page=45#45

numbers in Linear A:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1173901/posts?page=13#13
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/1202723/posts?page=10#10
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/1289143/posts?page=12#12

other:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/2658658/posts?page=22#22


27 posted on 07/09/2011 3:17:21 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (Yes, as a matter of fact, it is that time again -- https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/)
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To: SunkenCiv
I will get back to you a little later today re: concrete & pyramids.

I just got up a while ago and I 'ain't' clicking on all cylinders yet.

28 posted on 07/09/2011 5:38:05 AM PDT by Condor51 (The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits [A.Einstein])
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