From: Gennady Bystritsky <Gennady.Bystritsky@...>
Date: 2009-11-12T00:51:07+09:00
Subject: Re: Roman Numerals (Arrgh!)


On Nov 11, 2009, at 5:35 AM, Rob Biedenharn wrote:

>>> 
>>> And with an appropriately formed $numerals array, the "subtraction
>>> rule" is already covered. ;-)
>> 
>> Would you please elaborate? You mean same algorithm and "better"  
>> $numerals would cover mapping of 4 => "IV", 9 => "IX", etc.?
>> 
>>> 
>>> -Rob
> 
> 
> Yes, that's it exactly. Testing/using 9 before 5, you find IX (and  
> stop) before you go to VIIII. You can't repeat one of the "subtraction  
> groups" the way that you can repeat the individual numerals: 8 is  
> always VIII and never IVIV or IIX

Now you intrigued me ;-). So I am asking directly -- given the following $numerals:
$numerals = [[1000, "M"], [500, "D"], [100, "C"], [50, "L"], [10, "X"], [5, "V"], [1, "I"]]

...how one can transform it so that the original algorithm would produced shortened roman numbers? Please present the exact value of $numerals satisfying the above condition.

Gennady.