Unnecessary? Probably, in many cases. But so what? The whole concept can be learned in a matter of hours – it’s not exactly a hardship. And for that you get:
>The ability to understand all the past uses – movie dates (and some of us do care), old clocks, old sundials, cornerstones, and all the other things mentioned above, plus a few not yet mentioned – without having to find someone to explain it to you. Roman numerals show up in many ways in historic contexts that aren’t going to convert to Arabic numerals.
>The ability to make outlines, statutes, etc. with five divisions (upper case letters, lower case letters, upper case Roman numerals, lower case Roman numerals, and Arabic numerals) instead of just three. While this isn’t necessarily a frequent thing, it’s not trivial to have that capability.
Given that they can’t be eradicated from history, have some significant if limited utility still, and can be learned quite easily and quickly, I don’t foresee much popular support for your position.
I learned them in grade school. Also one day my 8th grade math teacher decided to teach us how the Romans actually did math with them (as well as Greek numerals). :eek: That I’ve never had use for.
My kids definitely learned Roman numerals at school, and if they hadn’t, I would have taught them about them. As has been said, they’re still used, and if all you’re trying to do is read them, they don’t take long at all to learn.
This summer we took our vacation to Rome, and the kids worked out the numerals on the carvings they saw throughout the city. While we were at the Capitoline Museums, my husband pointed out to the younger one that Romans didn’t just use those to write dates and such, they used them for real math. “Imagine engineering the aqueducts, or building the Pantheon, and having to do all your calculations with Vs and Xes.” Suddenly Roman engineering becomes much more impressive :eek: Makes you very grateful to the Indian mathmaticians who invented the number system we use today, and to the Persian and Arabic mathmaticians who passed it along to us.
Yes. It’s not exactly a difficult thing to learn. Even if kids didn’t learn it in school they’d quickly pick it up from movies and computer games. (Even if they say ‘vee’ instead of ‘five’ they know full when that it means fifth in a sequence).
My daughter did a school project where she learnt all sorts of different numbering systems - Mayan, Baylonian, Egyptian, Incan quipu (with the strings), Urnfield, hex, binary and a couple that I forget now; she learnt to count and calculate in several systems other than base 10. It was really interesting.
I didn’t say it was terrible or difficult to learn, I said that Roman numerals had been supplanted almost totally by other, more widely-used numerals and, thus, didn’t see any reason to keep them around. You don’t need to know Roman numerals to be able to tell time on that Rolex or any other watch/clock face, everyone knows the position of the numbers on a clock. And I don’t believe I’ve ever used a sundial to tell time in my life.
There just aren’t many practical usages for them in this day and age, I don’t think. All of the examples mentioned in this thread could be done just as well with the numeric system we currently use. They do look nice, though.
Growing up in the UK you can’t help but be exposed to Roman numerals, as the end of every BBC programme displays the production date in that format.
When I was a kid in the late 1980s they got ridiculously long (MCMLXXXVIII). I remember wondering whether 1990 was going to be just MXM, but it wasn’t, it was MCMXC. (See Cecil’s thoughts on this.)
So why not just call them “Super Bowl 32” or “Final Fantasy 7” and whatnot? Why include Roman numerals on your watch instead of Arabic ones? Would you not be able to read your watchface if it weren’t written in Roman numerals? I don’t understand the attachment that people have to these particular numbers.
Because it’s tradition, and sometimes traditional things just look nicer than modern things. Why not tear down St Stephen’s Tower and replace it with an LCD digital clockface?
OK, so you have a personal pet peeve there. In case you haven’t noticed, the rest of the world doesn’t. I have a personal pet peeve against the color pink, but I don’t expect Benetton to stop selling clothing in that color!
Roman numerals have been used continuously in movies and games for decades, ever since the first “numbered” sequel, The Godfather Part II. Saying that they’re unused is your mistake, not society’s.
As for my watch, I just think it looked better than similar watches that used Arabic numbers. People can have opinions right?
Leather and fur clothing has been supplanted almost totally by plant-based and synthetic materials. You don’t need leather or fur clothing to be able to ride a motorcycle or pilot a bomber or attend a movie premiere in the winter. And I don’t believe I’ve ever actually worn a leather or fur jacket in my life. So why don’t we just get rid of leather and fur clothing altogether?
Answers:
(1) Some people like it
(2) Not all societal elements have to be rationally justified
(3) If you really want to be rational about everything, you’d rebuild everything from scratch
(4) Variety is the spice of life
(5) Some choices are made for aesthetic purposes and aesthetics aren’t necessarily less legitimate than practical considerations, from the point of view of the person making the choice
(6) There’s value in continuity of cultural elements
And I for one am peeved by overzealous standardization of culture.
Are you going to start in on spelling reform next?
