So I was watching the Super Bowl last night… for those who know me – they KNOW that would NEVER happen! But alas, I was invited to a Super Bowl party, so I studied up on football and went in ready to enjoy the game (and commercials and halftime show!). While watching the game I noticed the roman numerals detailing the number of Super Bowls there had been:

XLIX

So, I knew:   I = 1     V = 5     X = 10  and  M = 1000
I had forgotten that L = 50, until I looked it up on my phone.

I know if the lower number comes before the bigger number you subtract, if it comes after you add…

IV = 4     VI = 6     IX = 9     XI = 11 

Then I did the math.

IX is:  1 – 10 = 9      XL is: 10 – 50  = 40

For a total of: 40 + 9 = 49

But then I wondered…

Why didn’t they just do

IL

1 – 50 = 49

Was it because it just didn’t look cool enough?

The world may never know.

🙂