> In the Roman numerical system, what number do the letters M D represent?And the answer is: 1,500. Photo credit: Hoyland CommonIn the Roman numerical system, the letter Mrepresents 1,000, and the letter D represents 500. If you add them together, theanswer is 1,500.As one might guess, the Roman numerical system began in Ancient Rome. It firstappeared around 800 or 900 B.C. and originated from a need to standardizecounting for more effective communication and trade. Using one's hand could onlytake you up to ten, and oftentimes even that could be unclear. The Romannumerical method utilized the human hand as the standard of reference, butintroduced letters and figures to make the process a bit more complex. The Roman numerical "alphabet" is based off of seven standard symbols: I, V, X,L, D and M. These symbols are added together from left to right to achieve aspecific amount. For Ancient Roman traders, a single finger or line represented"I", while "V" could be conveyed through 5 fingers or the V-shape between thethumb and forefinger. "X", meaning 10, equalled two hands (or ten fingers).Larger numbers were portrayed through more complex gestures based on subtleadjustments to the first ten gestures. As you might guess, this practice soon became more confusing, complex, andoverall limiting to the average trader. Fractions could not be shown throughgesture, nor the number 0. Eventually, ancient traders abandoned the Romannumeral hand-system for the more complex and effective Hindu and Arabic numbersystem. These ways of counting displayed numbers more closely to today's usage,where numbers are read as as single number in sequence (ex: 135 as one number).That's not to say Roman numerals have fallen out of use altogether. Theseancient numerals play select roles in modern day life, including but not limitedto: major sporting events, some analog clocks, the titles of Monarchs (we seeyou, Queen Elizabeth II), and the prefaces of books.And now, a joke: I struggle with Roman numerals until I get to 159. And then it just CLIX!