LPiA-22 Nov. 24

[dukealien]

Have you ever tried
to add Roman numerals?
An empire that ruled the world
seemed to have no need 
for one of the most useful concepts
in the history of mathematics:
the invention of zero.

True of zero.  But the Romans used something like (or a form of) the abacus for speedy calculations - the kind they used actually follows (or derives from) the way Roman numerals work, so they could easily read the numbers without even thinking of the quantities they represented, enter them on their abacus, then (laboriously) write out the result.  I believe the money-changers' "tables" Jesus overthrew were carved with such abacus patterns for quick calculation... which would have looked like magic, or just cheating, to their customers.

It's a good poem, and speaking for myself, I don't know how to use an abacus (of the modern, Oriental type) either.  But apparently the Romans did get along without the goose egg.  How that must have affected their philosophy and religion!