Task of the Week: Alte Münz

In the present Task of the Week, the Roman numerals are looked at more closely, a spelling for the natural numbers which arose in Roman antiquity. Particularly on old buildings, a marking of the year of construction in Roman numbers is usual. The task is located in Wetzlar’s inner city and can be found in the trail “Mathe in Wetzlar”. There the Roman numerals are incorporated into a slogan on a house facade.

Task: Alte Münz (task number: 545)

In the inscription on the house “Alte Münz” (Eisenmarkt 9) some letters are strikingly capitalized. Add the values ​​of the letters in the Roman numeric system.  

The students must recognize the larger Roman numbers and note how many times they occur. Subsequently, the various Roman numerals are translated into the Arabic notation and added. The Roman numerals as a spelling for the natural numbers are usually worked out in class 5 and can be used from this point onwards. Here, the rules for calculation with Roman numerals are less important than the translation of Roman and Arabic numbers.