What are Greek numerals?
Q: What are Greek numerals?
A: Greek numerals are a system of representing numbers using letters of the Greek alphabet. They are also known by the names Milesian numerals, Alexandrian numerals, or alphabetic numerals.
Q: How were numbers represented before the use of Greek letters?
A: Before it was used more, the Greek alphabet, Linear A and Linear B had used a different system with symbols for 1, 10, 100, 1000 and 10000 operating with a specific formula.
Q: What is an example of how to represent a number in the acrophonic Attic numeral system?
A: In the acrophonic Attic numeral system Ι = 1, Γ = 5, Δ = 10, ΓΔ = 50, Η = 100, ΓΗ = 500, Χ = 1000, ΓΧ = 5000, Μ = 10000 and ΓΜ = 50000. For example 241 would be represented as ΣΜΑʹ (200 + 40 + 1).
Q: How does the Ionic numeral system work?
A: The Ionic numeral system operates on an additive principle in which numeric values of letters are added together to form a total. Each unit (1-9) has its own letter assigned to it while tens (10-90) have their own letter assigned to them and hundreds (100-900) have their own letter assigned to them as well. This requires 27 letters so three obsolete letters are used for 6 (fau ϝ), 90 (koppa ϟ), and 900 (sampi ϡ).
Q: What symbol is used to distinguish numerals from letters?
A: To distinguish numerals from letters they are followed by the "keraia" symbol which is similar to an acute sign (Unicode U+0374).
Q: How do you represent numbers from 1 000 - 999 999? A: To represent numbers from 1 000 - 999 999 in this alphabetic system the same letters can be reused but must be preceded by a "left keraia" symbol (Unicode U+0375).
