ROMAN NUMERALS
The Puzzlemaster Presents Vol. 2
Will Shortz

ROMAN NUMERALS IV

Seven letters of the alphabet are also Roman numerals - I, V, X, L, C, D, and M.

1. Can you make an 8-letter word using 6 Roman numerals? (all but V)

2. Can you make a 9-letter word using 6 Roman numerals? (all but V)

3. Can you make a 12-letter, two-word phrase, using 6 Roman numerals? (all but D)

HINTS:
1. C _ _ _ _ _
2. E _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
3. V _ _ _ _    M _ _ _ _ _ _

MORE HINTS:
1. C _ _ _ A _
2. E _ _ _ A _ _ E _
3. V _ _ _ E    M _ _ _ _ O _

Answers:

1. CLIMAX
2. EXCLAIMED
3. VOICE MAILBOX

What is the largest number in Roman numerals that you can make with four straight lines?

Answer:

1,000  (M)

ISN'T IT ROMANTIC?
Credit: NY Times Crossword
Ernst Theimer

The clues below can be answered with a word that begins with one or more Roman numerals, if you separate the numeral from the rest of the word. . For example, given the clue 504 marbles, the answer would be DIVAGATES  as in DIV AGATES. DIV is 504 in Roman numerals and AGATES are certain marbles. (DIVAGATE means to wander about or digress.)

1) 1,000 boats
2) 1,000 poems
3) 1,001 log holders
4) 100 black cuckoos
5) 1,099 regal garments
6) 1,049 ships like the QE2
7) Boleyn and 99 others
8) Scheherazade's string of tales
9) Final, winning move in a 151-move chess game

Answers:

1. MARKS
2. MODES
3. MIGRATES
4. CANIS
5. MICROBES
6. MILLINERS
7. CANNES
8. MISERIES
9. CLIMATE 

ROMAN NUMERALS III

1)

I am a word of four letters .

My third is half my first,

My first is one-fifth of my fourth,

My second is ......... well ........ nothing to speak of.

2)
ONE OF NINE

A hundred and one
By fifty divide;
And if a cipher
Is rightly applied,
The answer is one of nine.

HINT:2. "divide" as in come between

Answers:

1. COLD
2. CLIO -  one of the Nine Muse

ROMAN HOLIDAY
Credit: GAMES Magazine - Apr/May 1987
O.J. Robertson

Each of the words below can be completed by converting one of the listed numbers into its Roman numeral counterpart and filling it into the blank. For example, 54 becomes LIV in Roman numerals, which, when filled into DE_____ER, makes DELIVER.

1. REFLE_____E
2. TA_____NG
3. E_____TE
4. A_____MATE
5. A_____SOR
6. PE_____S
7. HE_____NE
8. SU_____T
9. HAN_____ASP

11----14----56----91----251----506----650----1051----2001

Answers:

1. 14---REFLEXIVE
2. 11---TAXING
3. 91---EXCITING
4. 251---ACCLIMATE
5. 506---ADVISOR
6. 56---PELVIS
7. 1051---HEMLINE
8. 2001---SUMMIT
9. 650---HANDCLASP

ROMAN NUMERALS II

1)
Five hundred begins it, five hundred ends it.
Five in the middle is seen.
The first of all numbers, the first of all letters,
Take up their stations between.
Join all together, and then you will bring
Before you the name of an eminent king.

2)
Five hundred , a thousand, and one,
With proper attention dispose;
And that kind of light will appear
Which the sun in a fog often shows.

3. Two five-letter words are made up entirely of letters that are also Roman numerals. The first four letters of each word are the same. Can you think of the two words?

4)
If to one thousand you add one,
Then fifty and five hundred,
You'll have what's gentle, good, and kind,
Or else I must have blundered.

5)
Before a circle let appear
Twice twenty-five and five in rear,
The first fifth of eight join, if you can,
And then you'll find what conquers man.

6. How many words can you think of that are made up entirely of letters that also serve as Roman numerals?

HINT:
5. The first fifth of eight is the letter "e".

Answers:

1. DAVID
2. DIM
3. CIVIC and CIVIL
4. MILD
5. LOVE

6)

CIVIC

CIVIL

DAVID

DIM

MILD

LIVID

VIVID

MIX

MIL

MILL

DILL

MIMIC

LID

ROMAN NUMERALS I

1. What Roman numeral can climb a wall?

The students in the alternative learning center have tied their teacher up on a tabletop which rests on the letters XL.

2. How old is the teacher?
3. How do you know the teacher is going to succeed?

4)
150, when joined to a tree,
Makes a fine garment that warms you and me.

5. Remembering that L = 50, solve this rebus: LS

HINT:
5)
200 colleges I have seen,
Of national parks, at least 15;
And of the LS 44,
And hope I live to see 6 more.

Answers:

1. IV (ivy) --- see below for interesting historical note
2. He's over 40 (XL)
3. He's bound to excel.
4. CLOAK
5. Fifty capitals (50 capital S)

Note: The so-called Ivy League schools were originally the IV (4) schools: Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and Columbia.