Roman numerals

Imagine that you traveled back in time to ancient Rome. You go up to the baker and say, "I'd like 5 loaves of bread". The baker wouldn't know how many loaves of bread to give you. Why is this? It's because the ancient Romans didn't use numbers, they used numerals. A Roman numeral is a letter of the alphabet that represents certain numbers. A combination of these numerals can make different numbers.

The Roman numeral for 5 is V, so if you wanted to tell the baker how many loaves of bread you wanted, you would say, "I'd like V loaves of bread". Here are some of the Roman numerals and what they stand for:

I = 1
V = 5
X = 10
L = 50
C = 100
D = 500
M = 1000

To make different numbers, you have to combine the numerals. If you wanted to write 20, you would write XX. If you wanted to write 200, you would write CC. If you write a smaller numeral in front of a larger numeral, you have to subtract the smaller numeral from the bigger numeral to get the number they represent. For example, IV would be 4, because V (5) minus I (1) equals 4. If you write a larger numeral in front of a smaller numeral, you have to add the numerals to get the number they represent. For example, DX would be 510.

Convert each of the Roman numerals below to our number system:

1. XIV
2. XLV
3. MCD
4. CLI
5. MMCXV

I hope you enjoyed this post. Bye!