It’s the thing that comes up every darn year: the number of the Super Bowl is written in Roman numerals, which is quite the tradition.
But if you’re here, you might be wondering: how do you read Roman numerals in the first place?
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Here’s the lesson: each number is a symbol:
I is 1
V is 5
X is 10
L is 50
C is 100
D is 500
M is 1,000
Got that? Good. Then we get to how they’re written: it starts with the biggest number, and the Is (ones) go up to three (like LIII equals 53) or they get added on to V (5) to make six (VI), seven (VII) or eight (VIII). Once we get to four or nine, the symbols reverse, so you’re subtracting from the last number.
In this case, Super Bowl LIX looks like 50 + 1 + 10, but it’s not. It’s L (50) and IX is 10 – 1. So it’s Super Bowl 59.
Got it? Good!
