What is the biggest difference between Roman Numerals and Hindu Arabic Numerals?

Answer 1

There are two major differences between Roman Numerals and Hindu-Arabic numerals, and together they make the Hindu-Arabic system superior for must applications. First, Hindu-Arabic numbers use placement within a number to indicate a higher value. For example, in the number 256, the "5" indicates five tens and the "2" indicates two hundred units. The same numerals in a different order represent a totally different number, as for example, 562, which represents five hundreds, six tens and two singles. Roman numbers make little use of the order in which numerals are presented. Second, Hindu-Arabic numerals include a symbol for zero, while the Roman system completely lacks that. The zero is used as a place holder in such numbers as 1028, indicating one thousand, no hundreds, two tens and eight singles. This place holder allows aligning of several numbers and makes addition and subtraction easier, and multiplication and division so much easier that calculations can be done with Hindu numerals that are simply impossible with Roman numerals.
The Hindu Arabic system is different from Roman numerals cause Hindu Arabic has place value but Roman numerals do not