You might be thinking, “But I thought Romans liked subtracting things! Isn’t IV four because I is before V?” You’re not wrong, friend. The Romans did love a little subtraction game. But here’s the secret:
X X is never subtraction. Why? Because you only subtract when a smaller number comes before a bigger one. Two X’s are both the same size—10 and 10. They’re equals! They don’t bully each other.
Think of it like two friendly pandas sitting side-by-side. They don’t subtract each other. They just add their weight to make a super cute, chubby 20.
How Do You Actually Write It?
Technically, in proper Roman numeral style, you wouldn’t write “X X” with a space. You just smoosh them together: XX. That’s it. No spaces, no drama.
But if you see someone write X X with a space in a modern post, don’t panic. They’re probably just emphasizing the two tens. Or they’re typing with one hand while eating a burrito. We’ve all been there.
