seven symbols · ones, tens, hundreds · years
Built as a memo rather than a table: the thing worth hanging it up for reads across the room, with the full reference in smaller type below it.
Three sizes in one archive — from a sheet on the fridge to a poster on the wall.
A smaller symbol before a larger one subtracts: IV is 4, IX is 9. After it, it adds: VI is 6, XI is 11.
By the rule, four is IV: a smaller symbol before a larger one is subtracted.
Yet clock faces almost always show IIII. It balances better — four strokes on the left answer VIII on the right.
So it’s not a watchmaker’s mistake but a deliberate exception, centuries old.
Why the numbers can be trusted. Every countable number here is computed from data rather than typed in, and the sheet must pass 3 independent checks before it is allowed to build — how many items there are, the order they come in, and the claim in the highlighted box itself. If one fails, there is no file.
