History

[dogman]

What is 1979 in roman numerials?

[Ewood27]

I think MCMLXXIX. (M) 1000 + (CM) 100 less than 1000, or 900 + (L) 50 + (XX) 20 + (IX) 1 short of 10, or 9. So 1000 + 900 + 50 + 20 + 9 = 1979.

[FredPuli]

Try MCMLXXIX. The Romans put numbers in descending order of size adding as they went. So they would write 161 as CLXI.( C is 100, L is 50, X is 10, I is 1 )To avoid writing numerous Xs ,for example in writing 40, they put the smaller number before the larger to show that it was subtracted from it . So 141 would be CXLI. So for 1979 they read it as M plus M minus C plus L plus X plus X minus I plus X