Question

Anita’s age is 48 years. Express it in Roman system:
(a) XXXXVIIII
(b) XLVII
(c) XLVIII
(d) XLV

Answer 1

Hint: So, basically we are asked to convert 48 into Roman system form. According to the Roman numerals, I denotes 1, V denotes 5, X denotes 10 and L denotes 50. Remember that if a roman numeral has a prefix as the one step lower numeral, i.e., L can only be preceded by X, V can only be preceded by I, however, the exception to this is X, which can be preceded by both I and V then the preceding numbers is subtracted from the last number. For example: IV is 5-1=4. So, use these concepts to reach the answer to the above question.

Complete step-by-step answer:
Let us start the solution to the above question by knowing some rules of Roman numerals. According to the Roman numerals, I denotes 1, V denotes 5, X denotes 10 and L denotes 50. Remember that if a roman numeral has a prefix as the one step lower numeral, i.e., L can only be preceded by X, V can only be preceded by I, however, the exception to this is X, which can be preceded by both I and V then the preceding numbers is subtracted from the last number. For example: IV is 5-1=4. So, use these concepts to reach the answer to the above question. Also, unlike the standard number system, Roman numerals don’t have place values, rather all the digits/numbers are added to get the value of the number. For example: LX is 50+10=60.
Now let us move to the conversion of 48. First it is nearest to 50, so L. Also, it is less than 50, so we need to subtract something from it and it can only be preceded by X, so, it can be written as XL, which is equal to 40.
Now we need to add 8 to XL, so we add VIII as the last part of it. So, the roman numeral becomes: XLVIII.
Therefore, the Roman form of 48 is XLVIII. Hence, the answer to the above question is option (c).

Note: The general mistake that a student makes is that he writes 48 as IVVIII. Thinking that the first 2 digits represent 4 and the last 4 digits represent 8, so together they are 48, but unlike the decimal system here the digits are added and do not have place values. Also, some students may answer as IIL, but this is wrong as the numeral can only be preceded by one step lower numeral, i.e., by X and not by I.