Many of us have areas in Our mathematics background that are hazy, barely understood, or troublesome. Thus, while it may at first seem beneath your dignity to read chapters on fundamental arithmetic, these basic concepts may be just the spots where your difficulties lie. These chapters attempt to treat the subject on an adult level that will be interesting and informative. Having outgrown finger counting, we use numerals. One of the simplest numeral systems is the Roman numeral system, in which tally marks are used to represent the objects being counted.
Roman numerals appear to be a refinement of the tally method still in use today.
Grouping by fives in this way is reminiscent of the Roman numeral system, in which the multiples of five are represented by special symbols. A number may have many names. The numbers which are used for counting in our number system are sometimes called natural numbers. The Arabic numerals from 0 through 9 are called digits, and an integer may have any number of digits. Although a system such as the Roman numeral system is adequate for recording the results of counting, it is too cumbersome for purposes of calculation.