There’s a joke that goes like this: Roman numerals. What are they good IV?
It’s a nice little number pun, but honestly, Roman numerals aren’t good for much — just try doing your taxes with them. By the sixth century A.D. (and possibly even earlier) a much better system, now called the Hindu-Arabic number system, was developed in India. It uses only 10 numerals: one through nine, plus zero — and only those numerals. No special symbol needed for 50, 100, a thousand, or any other number — just combinations of those 10 numerals.
The Hindu-Arabic system is a place-value system, meaning the position of a numeral indicates its value. So in the number 459, the four represents 400; the five represents 50. Lining the numbers up in columns makes quick work of addition and subtraction. A little carrying and borrowing and you’re solid on multiplication and division as well.
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