> Seriously I figured they used abacus for everything they just figured out the notation to write it down in at the end some would convert to the if notation while others would not.
Yes, this is exactly right, and should be at the top of this discussion thread. Romans (like the Greeks, the Babylonians, and others in the ancient world) did their calculations using a counting board. Roman numerals were only used for recording the final answers.
Yes, this is exactly right, and should be at the top of this discussion thread. Romans (like the Greeks, the Babylonians, and others in the ancient world) did their calculations using a counting board. Roman numerals were only used for recording the final answers.
“When a Roman wished to settle accounts with someone, he would use the expression vocare aliquem ad calculos - ‘to call them to the pebbles.’” http://mathforum.org/library/drmath/view/57572.html
Our words calculate, calculus, calculator, etc. all come from the Latin word for the pebbles they used as counting-board tokens.