Re: CHAT: Measurements (was: Re: CHAT: browsers)

On Tuesday 11 February 2003 8:45 pm, kendra wrote:
> Andreas said:
> > Chrsitophe Grandsire:
> > >Or because we don't have a single word for "ten thousands" (which seems
>
> to
>
> > >me
> > >to be the definite explanation ;)) ). As for Asian cultures which do
> > > have
>
> a
>
> > >single word for "ten thousands" but still group figures in threes,
> > > that's due
> > >to the fact that they borrowed the Arabic figures from us without
>
> adapting
>
> > >them
> > >to their use.
> >
> > Time for the next instalment of the aperiodic Conlang Conspiracy (tm).
>
> We're
>
> > all going to consistently use "myriad" for 10,000 till it becomes
> > accepted usage!
>
> Myriad is a great word, isn't it? it sounds like a name to me. Myriad and
> Myrtle.
> Somewhat on the subject of measurements and numbers, though, are there any
> places in the world which don't use the Arabic numeral way of doing things?
> As an American I have a hard time imagining life without zero and have
> spent most of the morning in bed thinking about it, since I'm trying to
> figure out how to write numbers in this brushy-calligraphy-kind-of-thing
> I've been working on. How do systems that don't have zeros or use places
> (tens and hundreds and stuff) write numbers?
>
>
Well, you can't do advance mathematics without a zero, obviously, but who
wants to count how much of nothing there is?

Also, how to write numbers without 0?  Just look at roman numerals.  I, X, C,
M for 1, 10, 100, 1000.