A subpar Roman-based googological notation
Trying to make Roman numerals into a googology thing by shamelessly ripping off of sys128's ideas.
Click me if you don't know what Roman numerals are
Background
Roman numerals are a non-positional number system that was used in Rome and is sometimes still used today.
Base symbols
Various multiples of 1/10 each have their own symbols, which are each combined in a certain way to represent larger numbers.
Symbol | Value |
I | 1 |
V | 5 |
X | 10 |
L | 50 |
C | 100 |
D | 500 |
M | 1,000 |
Strings of symbols add the values, but you shouldn't have more than 3 in a row. A power-of-ten symbol which appears before any of the two symbols after it on the chart (I before V or X, X before L or C, or C before D or M) subtracts. This could be modified so that multiple symbols subtract more (e.g. IIX = 8), or so that any symbol can subtract from any symbol (e.g. IC = 99), but the extension detailed in this page doesn't do that.
[Click to show a partial list of Roman numeral sequences]
Sequence | Value |
II | 2 |
III | 3 |
IV | 4 |
VI | 6 |
VII | 7 |
VIII | 8 |
IX | 9 |
XI | 11 |
XII | 12 |
XIII | 13 |
XIV | 14 |
XV | 15 |
XIX | 19 |
XL | 40 |
XLI | 41 |
XLIV | 44 |
XLIX | 49 |
XC | 90 |
XCIX | 99 |
CD | 400 |
CM | 900 |
CMXCIX | 999 |
MMMCMXCIX | 3999 |
With thanks to sys128
A bar over a symbol indicates that its value is multiplied by 1,000. This is still a vanilla feature; L (Unicode "L̅") is 50,000. sys128 had the great idea to add more lines — as a side note, making more than 2 lines with CSS is an absolute nightmare.
(Unicode "V̅̅̅") = 5,000,000,000. Overlined numerals can be used next to non-overlined ones; XXMMMCCCIV = 23,304.
They also had the idea to have a smaller numeral on a line as a shorthand for that many lines;
= = 10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 ( = ).
The fun part
sys128 stopped at towers of bars (which are evaluated from top to bottom): =
=
10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 |
X |
X |
= ...
But we can get much higher (so high). We can take it high high high high.
The proposal is this notation for towers, using a stack of 3 numerals where the middle numeral is in an open box shaped like a backwards ㄷ: =
QIII |
QII - I |
QIII |
QII - I |
... |
QII - I |
QIII |
QII - I |
QIII |
with Q1 of those ㄷ things; a box of "rank" 1 ( I
) is equivalent to an overline.
= [Click to show/hide ever-expanding googological tower of doom]
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. Trying to work this out will result in mind-numbingly vast numbers cascading down a series of overlines and ㄷs only to hit the next level of separator and create even longer chains which are cascaded down ad nauseam until you have an incomprehensibly large number which is probably still smaller than G64. Now try to do
, or something something open-box towers nested within open-box towers which I don't have a notation for.
Bonus: ASCII forms
In case you for some reason want to actually use this on any social media, where you can't use cursed HTML/CSS hacks. I don't know if you can even make the box things in TeX.
Bar notation:
- M = (M)|
- MM = (MM)|
- XIVCII = (XIV)|CII
- MXLVIIIDLXXVI = (M)||(XLVIII)|DLXXVI
-    = (II)[III](CXLVII)[II](CDLXXXIII)[I]DCXLVII
(Does not render properly because CSS is a hack-fest) = (C)[(D)[M]](XII)|I
- = ((IV)|XCVI){MMXLVIII}(MXXIV)
- = ((II){III}(IV))V
- = ((IV){II}(IV){II}(IV))V
- = ((IV){II}(IV){II}(IV))[V] (this one exposes a problem which I lack the skill to fix.)
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