h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Hi,
I've been wandering about the Australia and New Zealand researchers pages and found your PS.
I can't believe I actually want to know this, but do all Roman Numeral watches have the 4 as IIII instead of IV? Cos mine does...
And if I'm wrong, what's the answer? (And either way, why?)
(I really need to get out more!)

Hi thar, you're in good company with this one - it was my faveourite dinner party convo for ages and it tok me forever to find the answer then I found several answers (but I have my own).

Firstly I don't think it's an upside down easier to read thing as a lot of folks think - otherwise they'd have changes the V, VI, VII as well. Here's the most popular explanations and my take on them.

Solution 1 (the urban legend):

The Romans were a superstitious lot. They didn't like to see the letters IV for four, as they were the first two letters of the name of their supreme god, Jupiter (spelt IVPITER in Roman days).

Solution 2 (the scientific approach):

The rules for writing Roman Numerals were only devised fairly recently (in the last few hundred years). The Romans were much more haphazard about writing them. The normal way of writing 4 was IIII, the normal way of writing 9 was VIIII. The forms IV and IX were rare, but would have been recognised. Clock makers started to use IX for 9 because VIIII was quite a large number to fit on a dial, but they continued to use IIII because it was narrow. This became the tradition and so all clock faces were made this way. Interestingly enough the only place I have seen a clock face with a IV on it was in Italy near Lake Como.

Solution 3 (the Real McCoy)

It might go back to the 18th century where people were more concerned with elegance and proportion - the Age of Reason and all that. They worked it our that if you divided the numerals into groups based on the main numbers (I, V and X) you get the following :-

I, II, III (3 in total)
IV,V,VI,VII,VIII, (5 in total)
IX,X,XI,XII (4 in total)

It was more aesthetically pleasing if you converted the IV to IIII giving 3 groups of 4 as so ..

I, II, III, IIII (4 in total)
V,VI,VII,VIII, (4 in total)
IX,X,XI,XII (4 in total)

This would make the watch face more symetrical, elegant and proportional - all important things to the 18th century mind.

You now have a lovely party question to ask next time you`re with a group of friends - just ask em if they have a watch with roman numerals on it and then ask them if they can spot anything wrong with it. I guarantee that 75 % of them won`t even spot it

I am much obliged.
Thanks a million!!
(And it will indeed be rolled out at parties henceforth and forevermore)

.... and if they get tired of that let me know and I'll tell you the story of why we count in twelves