|
Friends!
Romans! Geeks!
Caesar has proclaimed Compvter Romanvs to be the official calcvlator
of the Roman Empire. Yov now have at yovr disposal the latest
in high technology to assist in all manner of nvmerical problems.
Yes, whether yov're bvilding a road, designing an aqvadvct, or
covnting yovr gladiators, Compvter Romanvs will make the job easier.
Error
Codes
From time to time, yov may notice a blinking nvmber in
the calcvlator display; this is an error code cavsed by a barbarian
performing an invalid operation. Here is a table of the error codes
along with their meanings:
| I |
Indicates an overflow condition.
An operation has resvlted in a qvantity greater than the
largest nvmber that exists
( ).
|
| II |
Indicates an vnderflow condition.
An operation has resvlted in a qvantity smaller than the
smallest nvmber that exists (I).
|
| III |
Indicates that the vser has
entered an invalid seqvence of nvmerals.
|
To clear the error, press the key with the small "c" on it.
Repeated errors will resvlt in the vser being thrown to the lions.
Help, troubleshooting, and questions
Nvmeral
Valves
The following table gives the valves of the variovs
nvmerals. When a bar appears above a nvmeral, its valve is increased
a thovsandfold.
| Nvmeral |
Valve |
With
Bar |
| I |
One |
(Invalid) |
| V |
Five |
Five
thovsand |
| X |
Ten |
Ten
thovsand |
| L |
Fifty |
Fifty
thovsand |
| C |
One
hvndred |
One
hvndred thovsand |
| D |
Five
hvndred |
Five
hvndred thovsand |
| M |
One
thovsand |
One
million |
Nvmeral
Syntax
Vse the following gvidelines to constrvct and evalvate qvantites
expressed in Roman Nvmerals:
| I |
Generally
speaking, smaller nvmerals follow larger nvmerals (see rvle
III below). In svch cases, add vp the valves of the nvmerals
to determine the qvantity represented.
|
| II |
Nvmerals
which are powers of ten (I, X, C, etc.) can be repeated VP
to three times in a row; other nvmerals cannot be repeated.
|
| III |
In
certain cases, a smaller nvmeral may precede a larger one.
Evalvate these expressions by svbtracting the smaller nvmeral
from the larger one. A smaller nvmeral can be placed before
a larger one only if ALL of the following conditions are met:
| -- |
The
smaller nvmeral mvst be a power of ten.
|
| -- |
The
smaller nvmeral mvst be either one-fifth or one-tenth
the valve of the larger one.
|
| -- |
The smaller nvmeral mvst either be the first nvmeral
in the expression, or be preceded by a nvmeral of
at least ten times its valve.
|
| -- |
If another nvmeral follows the larger nvmeral, it
mvst be smaller than the one that precedes the larger
nvmeral.
|
|
Author: Ed
Hobbs Copyright © MCMXCVII Edward R.
Hobbs
Applet Help
I see only a gray box.
You must have a Java capable browser to run this applet. It works
best with Internet Explorer. (Get the
latest version.)
More
Help with Calculator Applet
What Happened to the "U"s?
In the interests of providing an authentic experience, all the letter
"u"s have been replaced with "v"s, except for
the help section. The Roman alphabet has no letter u. Please don't
write and tell us they didn't have calculators, either! |
