Reader's corner. December

1988/12/01 Goñi, Jesus Mari Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Matematika

Question

Elhuyar. Science and Technology. In issue 16 of this magazine opens the new section "The Reader's Corner". As the name suggests, it is a section of the reader that seeks to resolve the doubts and concerns of readers.

In this case, I would like to ask you how did (or are) operations with Roman numerals take place? For example, how can the next sum be made?

74,395 + 59,347

Jon Urrujulegi

Answer

I know that the Romans used abacus to perform arithmetic operations. Therefore, they did not perform the calculations (the term calculus comes from the Latin calculus; the small stone precisely) using paper (papyrus) and pen, but moving the real calculations.

The question posed by the reader makes no sense outside the Arab system we use. Calculations made with paper and pen (to speak more precisely the algorithms) cannot differentiate the positional character of the Arabic Numerical System. The word algorithm is Arabic and Al-khuwariamu is only a European deformation of the name of the Arab mathematician.

Therefore, the Romans could not perform these operations on paper (since it was not their Positional Numbering System) and instead used the abacus. Algorithms made with paper and pen and the positional character of the Arabic Numerical System cannot be separated.

In the following image accompanying the response it can be observed (see date, year 1503) that both systems were opposed in the European Renaissance. The older man fixes them using calculations (Roman mode) and the young man handling the figure (another Arabic word with meaning "empty") and the pen.

Hoping that the answer has satisfied the curiosity of the reader, receive a cordial greeting.

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