10 NUMBERS •^ NUMBER SYMBOLS
Number symbols
Since the earliest times, people have used numbers
in their daily lives – to help them count, measure,
tell the time, or to buy and sell things.
Of all these number
systems, only ours has a
symbol for zero. We can also
see that the Babylonian and
Egyptian systems are similar.
This chart shows the
system we use, called
the Hindu-Arabic system,
compared with some other
ancient number systems.
Number systems
A number system is a set of symbols, called numerals, that
represent numbers. Different ancient peoples developed
different ways of writing and using numbers.
Roman numerals
This chart shows the Roman number system, which puts
different letters together to make up numbers.
I II III
Ones I
1
II
2
III
3
IV
4
V
5
VI
6
VII
7
VIII
8
IX
9
Tens X
10
XX
20
XXX
30
XL
40
L
50
LX
60
LXX
70
LXXX
80
XC
90
Hundreds C
100
CC
200
CCC
300
CD
400
D
500
DC
600
DCC
700
DCCC
800
CM
900
Thousands M
1000
MM
2000
MMM
3000
IV
4000
V
5000
VI
6000
VII
7000
VIII
8000
MX
9000
Hindu-Arabic numerals
are used all over the
world today
Numbers were invented
to count amounts of
things such as apples
Many people think the Ancient
Egyptian symbols for 1 to 9
represented fingers
3210
Symbols after a
larger symbol are
added to it
Symbols before a
larger symbol are
subtracted from it
Look at the symbol for six. It’s a V
for 5, with I after it, for 1. This
means “one more than five”, or 5 + 1.
Now look at the symbol for nine.
This time, the I is before the X.
This means “one less than ten” or 10 − 1.
The 10 symbols we use to
make up all numbers are
called digits.
ANCIENT ROMAN
ANCIENT EGYPTIAN
BABYLONIAN
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