Number Bases

Some examples of number base systems, some more formalized than

others, are:
Binary (base 2) Base 2 (Binary)
Hand (base 5) Base 5 (Hand)
Octal (base 8) Base 8 (Octal)
Decimal (base 10) Base 10 (Decimal)
Groupings using 12 (base 12) Base 12 (duodecimal)
Hexadecimal (base 16) Base 16 (Hexadecimal)
Mayan (base 20) Base 20 (Vigesimal)
Time and Ancient Sumerian (base 60) Base 60 (Sexagesimal)

Egyptian numerals
A special symbol represents a specified grouping value. For example a (picture
of a hand) represents 5. The Roman numerals and the Egyptian numbering
represent each order of magnitude with a special symbol. Note that this will in
some cases limit how high a numbering system may count because a new
symbol needs to be developed for each successive grouping. For example, the
number 1,475,268 is represented in the Egyptian numbering system as follows:

Each of the magnitudes of 10 was represented in the above number, for
example the 4 frogs represent 4 hundred thousands and the 5 lotus flowers
represent 5 thousands, etc. In this numbering system, only the magnitudes of
10 that are used are expressed in the written number. The number 5,060 is
thus represented as:

The Egyptians had a bases 10 system of hieroglyphs for numerals. By
this we mean that they has separate symbols for one unit, one ten, one
hundred, one thousand, one ten thousand, one hundred thousand, and
one million.

Here are the numeral hieroglyphs
To make up the number 276, for example, fifteen
symbols were required: two "hundred" symbols, seven
"ten" symbols, and six "unit" symbols. The numbers
appeared thus:

276 in hieroglyphs


Here is another example:

4622 in hieroglyphs.

Roman Numerals

Symbols
Roman numerals are based on seven symbols: a stroke
(identified with the letter I) for a unit, a chevron
(identified with the letter V) for a five, a cross-stroke
(identified with the letter X) for a ten, a C (identified
as an abbreviation of Centum) for a hundred, etc.:




Symbol
c
V
X
L
C
D

M

Value
1 (one) (unus)
5 (five) (quinque)
10 (ten) (decem)
50 (fifty) (quinquaginta)
100 (one hundred) (centum)
500 (five hundred)
(quingenti)
1,000 (one thousand) (mille)

Symbols are iterated to produce multiples of the decimal
(1, 10, 100, 1,000) values, with V, L, D substituted for a
multiple of five, and the iteration continuing: I "1", II "2", III
"3", V "5", VI "6", VII "7", etc., and the same for other bases:
X "10", XX "20", XXX "30", L "50", LXXX "80"; CC "200",
DCC "700", etc. At the fourth iteration, a subtractive
principle may be employed, with the base placed before the
higher base: IIII or IV "4", VIIII or IX "9", XXXX or XL "40",
LXXXX or XC "90", CCCC or CD "400", DCCCC or CM
"900".

The Romans used only what are called capital (upper case) letters in
modern usage. In the Middle Ages, minuscule (lower case) letters were
developed, and these are now also commonly called Roman numerals:
i, ii, iii, iv, etc. Also in medieval use was the substitution of j for a final i
to end numbers, such as iij for 3 or vij for 7. This was not an additional
symbol, but merely a swash variant of i. It is used today, especially in
medical prescriptions, to prevent tampering with or misinterpretation
of a number after it is written.
For large numbers (4,000 and above), a bar can be placed above a base
numeral, or parentheses placed around it, to indicate multiplication by
1,000, although the Romans themselves often just wrote out the "M"s:
]


Symbol
V or (V)
X or (X)
L or (L)
C or (C)
D or (D)
M or (M)



Value
five thousand
ten thousand
fifty thousand
one hundred thousand
five hundred thousand
one million

The basic multiples of Roman numerals thus
follow a pattern:

Ones
Tens
Hund
reds
Thou
sands
Ten
thous
ands
Hund
red
thous
ands


1
I
X
C
M

X

C




2
II
XX
CC
MM

XX

CC




3
III
XXX
CCC
MM
M
XXX

CCC




4
IV
XL
CD
IV

XL

CD




5
V
L
D
V

L

D



6
VI
LX
DC
VI

LX

DC



7
VII
LXX
DCC
VII

LXX

DCC




8
VIII
LXX
X
DCC
C
VIII
LXX
X
DCC
C



9
IX
XC

CM

IX
XC

CM

A practical way to write a Roman number is to consider the
modern Arabic numeral system, and separately convert the
thousands, hundreds, tens, and ones as given in the chart
above. So, for instance, 1234 may be thought of as "one
thousand and two hundreds and three tens and four",
obtaining M (one thousand) + CC (two hundreds) + XXX
(thirty) + IV (four), for MCCXXXIV. Thus eleven is XI (ten
and one), 32 is XXXII (thirty and two) and 2009 is MMIX
(two thousand and nine). Note that the subtractive
principle is not extended beyond the chart: for example, IL
is not used for 49, rather this should be written as forty
(XL) and nine (IX), or XLIX.

Chinese-Japanese Multiplicative Grouping

There are characters representing the numbers zero
through nine, and other characters representing larger numbers
such as tens, hundreds, thousands and so on. There are two sets
of characters for Chinese numerals: one for everyday writing and
one for use in commercial or financial contexts known as dxi
(simplified Chinese: ; traditional Chinese: ). The latter
arose because the characters used for writing numerals are
geometrically simple, so simply using those numerals cannot
prevent forgeries in the same way spelling numbers out in
English would. A forger could easily change everyday characters
(30) to (5000) by adding just a few strokes. That would
not be possible when writing using the financial characters
(30) and (5000).


Financial


(T) or
(S)
(T) or
(S)


(T) or
(S)











Normal













(T) or
(S)
(T) or
(S)




Value
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
100
1,000
10
4

10
8






Pnyn
lng
y
r
sn
s
w
li
q
b
ji
sh
bi
qin
wn
y



T denotes Traditional, S denotes
Simplified
Notes
is a common informal way to represent zero, but the traditional is more often used in schools.
is not a standard Chinese character, because Chinese characters never contain ovals (only boxes).
In Unicode, is treated as a Chinese symbol or punctuation, rather than a Chinese ideograph.
also (obsolete financial), can be easily manipulated into (two) or (three).
also (obsolete financial), can be easily manipulated into (one) or (three).
also (T) or (S), see Characters with regional usage section.
also (obsolete financial), can be easily manipulated into (one) or (two).
also (T) or (S) sn.
also (obsolete financial)
[1]






Although some people use as financial, it is not ideal because it can be easily manipulated into
(five) or (thousand).

Chinese numbers group by ten-thousands
see Reading and transcribing numbers section below.
See large numbers section below.

Whole numbers

Multiple-digit numbers are constructed using a
multiplicative principle; first the digit itself (from 1 to 9), then
the place (such as 10 or 100); then the next digit.
In Mandarin, the multiplier (ling) is often used rather
than (r) for all numbers greater than 200 with the "2"
numeral (although as noted earlier this varies from dialect to
dialect and person to person). Use of both (ling) or (r)
are acceptable for the number 200. When writing in the
Cantonese dialect, (yi
6
) is used to represent the "2" numeral
for all numbers. In the southern Min dialect of Chaozhou
(Teochew), (no
6
) is used to represent the "2" numeral in all
numbers from 200 onwards. Thus:

Number
60
20

200

2000

45

2,362






Structure
[6] [10]
[2] [10] or
[20]
[2] (r) or
(ling)
[100]
[2] (ling)
[1000]
[4] [10] [5]

[2] [1,000]
[3] [100]
[6] [10] [2]




Mandarin



or

or










Cantonese

or

or

or


or







Chaozhou
















Shanghainese