Who Invented Abacus? History with Interesting Facts

Earlier counting devices that were used for counting are the human hands and their fingers that are capable of counting only up to ten. Toes were also used to count when they had to count more than ten. A larger quantity was counted, with the help of natural items like pebbles, seashells and twigs.

The Salamis Tablet (c. 300 BCE)

Do the same thing in the ones place, “borrowing” a bead from the tens place (making it 6) to subtract 7 from 12 instead of 2. Eight removed from nine is one, so a single bead is left up in the hundreds place. It is easier to use one’s thumb to move the beads in the top row, and the index finger to move the beads in the bottom row.

• On each rod, the classic Chinese abacus has 2 beads on the upper deck and 5 on the lower deck; such an abacus is also referred to as a 2/5 abacus.
• It also influenced the education system of different countries.
• It has a total of seven beads, out of which two beads on the rods on one side and 5 beads on the rods on the other side of the divider.
• For example, as shown in the below picture, the abacus is equal to 283 included 9 beads moved to the reckoning bar.
• Therefore it made written calculations easier and the abacus became unnecessary.
• As the abacus came to be used solely for counting and computing, its form was changed and improved.
• Abacus, a counting frame, is a primitive yet innovative tool used for arithmetic calculations.
• Here, at Genie Academy, we’ve understood all that the powerful abacus can offer to your child, both as a calculator and as a tool for increased brain development, even in the twenty-first century.

What Tools Can You Use To Learn Math?

Digital devices need not replace manipulative tools like the abacus that build mathematical thinking. Overall, an abacus provides a straightforward way to calculate and teach arithmetic using visual and spatial representations. The bead above the bar has a value of 5, while the lower bead has a value of 1. By sliding the beads up and down, you can represent any number and perform arithmetic through a place value system. In Western countries, a bead frame similar to the Russian abacus but with straight wires and a vertical frame is common (see image). It had a close relation to natural phenomena, the underworld, and the cycles of the heavens.

What is Abacus? A Brief History and Explanation of this Ancient Math Tool

Over it is spread a cloth, bought in Easter term, with a special pattern, black, ruled with lines a foot, or a full span, apart. In the spaces between them are placed the counters, in their ranks. With the Japanese version, only the index finger and thumb are used.

James Appleby – Complete Biography, History, and Inventions

Abacus is a device consisting of a frame with rows of wires consisting of beads. It is a hand-operated device used for calculation and is bound to have some human error. It can be used for performing calculations such as multiplication, addition, and division. Earlier operations like counting were performed on hands or using Vedic maths but larger operations require more calculations. Therefore there was a need for a development tool for such calculations. It was India’s first calculator used in Asia, Europe, and Russia.

The Abacus: A Brief History

A brain takes input from the organs; thus, in an abacus, the beads are arranged in that way. When the children manage it by their fingers, the nerve endings get activated and then it activates the cells which are in the brain. When the left hand is used, the cells on the right side of the brain are activated.

What is the difference between a counting board and an abacus?

• In 1972 the Hewlett Packard HP-35 scientific calculator made the slide-rule obsolete.
• Right below this crack, we come across another set of eleven parallel lines which are again divided into two sections by a line that is perpendicular to them but has a semi-circle at the top of the intersection.
• But it also has traces of being used during ancient times near east, China, Japan, and Europe.
• Likewise, to add 6 in the hundreds place, move the top bead in the hundreds place down and one bead from the bottom row up to get a total of 8.

An abacus is a manual calculator that uses sliding beads to represent numbers. The rows and columns of beads represent the digits in your number. Talking of the structure of the Abacus, it has one upper and four lower beads in one rod. Abacus has 17 rods in a standard Student Abacus or teacher Abacus. The divider is used to separate the left and right strings of beads. It has a total of seven beads, out of which two beads on the rods on one side and 5 beads on the rods on the other side of the divider.

Medieval Europe

Below these lines is a wide space with a horizontal crack dividing it. Expert abacus users can sometimes do calculations faster than on a calculator, and can even use them to find the square root of whole numbers. As mentioned earlier the thumb and the index fingers play a very prominent role in mastering the abacus. The abacus is used in many countries even today and an efficient method to achieve proficiency in arithmetic.

Japan

In austere field environments, rudimentary abaci have been commonly used by infantry soldiers among many of the worlds’ armed forces up to the present day. Another popular use of abaci around the world is to teach arithmetic to children, especially multiplication; the abacus can substitute for rote memorization of multiplication tables. So in many Asian countries, the abacus remains a point of cultural pride and mathematical skill. So while the exact origin is uncertain, abacuses developed across Eurasia over thousands of years as an efficient calculation tool.

Modern Applications

Some historians believe that the abacus was the first instrument created to perform calculations. Invention and technological innovation have relegated the use of the abacus and caused it to lose popularity in schools and homes, where it was previously used to educate children. As Abacus became more widespread, various versions of the device emerged in different parts of the world. For example, the Roman Abacus, used in ancient Rome, was similar to the Chinese Abacus but had slight differences in design.

THE Salamis Tablet

In the Roman abacus the board was given grooves to facilitate moving the counters in the proper files. The exact origin of the abacus is unknown, but bead calculating devices emerged independently across many ancient civilizations. Both the Roman Empire and Ancient Greece used abacuses, but evidence dates back thousands of years earlier to Mesopotamia and Egypt.

History and Origins of the Abacus

The binary abacus is used to explain how computers manipulate numbers.[59] The abacus shows how numbers, letters, and signs can be stored in a binary system on a computer, or via ASCII. The device consists of a series of beads on parallel wires arranged in three separate rows. The beads represent a switch on the computer in either an “on” or “off” position.

Due to fundamental similarities in their core functions, computers are sometimes referred to as an abacus due to their striking resemblance. More recently, the use of the abacus has been shown to produce a number of changes in the grey matter and brain matter, helping to maintain integration and accelerate learning through training. It also helps us to solve arithmetic problems through calculation and memory, as long as the operations are done with simple numbers. Today, this ancient instrument is used as a type of didactic toy to teach mathematics in a simple way to children, as it functions as a multiplication table. This calculating tool uses a counting frame and a series of beads on an upper and lower set of rods. Beads are pushed to the center to mark numbers in different place values, making it easy to make complex calculations.

• In the Roman abacus the board was given grooves to facilitate moving the counters in the proper files.
• In the Middle Ages, the Abacus was further developed in Europe, and merchants and traders used it for bookkeeping and accounting.
• The Roman system of ‘counter casting’ was used widely in medieval Europe, and persisted in limited use into the nineteenth century.[22] Wealthy abacists used decorative minted counters, called jetons.
• Through small balls that can slide along a series of wires or strings that are attached to a frame usually wood but can also be plastic.
• An abacus is a manual calculating tool used for adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing.
• If you hold out both hands in front of you, palms facing out, you will see that your two thumbs are beside each other and two sets of 4 fingers spread out from there.
• The short grooves on the right may have been used for marking Roman “ounces” (i.e. fractions).

Who Invented Abacus? Types and Uses

The counting board is a piece of wood, stone or metal with carved grooves or painted lines between which beads, pebbles or metal discs were moved. The abacus is a device, usually of wood (romans made them out of metal and they are made of plastic in modern times), having a frame that holds rods with freely-sliding beads mounted on them. The Abacus is a simple yet powerful tool that can perform complex mathematical calculations. The beads or stones on the Abacus represent numbers and are moved along the rods or wires to perform various operations.

• When the right hand is used on the abacus, the left side cells of the brain are activated.
• The sand (“dust”) surface is thought to have evolved into the board marked with lines and equipped with counters whose positions indicated numerical values—i.e., ones, tens, hundreds, and so on.
• When the Hindu-Arabic number system came into use, abaci were adapted to use place-value counting.
• It has been a boon for the visually challenged as learning placement value, and other calculations can be done by touch.
• The counting board is a piece of wood, stone or metal with carved grooves or painted lines between which beads, pebbles or metal discs were moved.
• Then, as even larger quantities (greater than ten fingers and toes could represent) were counted, people picked up small, easy-to-carry items such as pebbles, sea shells, and twigs to add up sums.

The Abacus was so important in ancient times that it was often called the “calculator.” Experienced abacists can perform some calculations faster than an electronic calculator, but it takes a great deal of abacus dark market practice and expertise to reach that level. For most people, the ease and simplicity of using calculators and other devices overshadow the potential gains of learning to make calculations on an abacus.

It is an instrument that helps us perform simple mathematical operations and a little algebra. Mesopotamia – The earliest archaeological evidence of a counting board device dates back to 2700–2300 BCE from the Sumerian civilization in ancient Mesopotamia. These early abacuses paved the way for the development of the Roman abacus many centuries later. One example of archaeological evidence of the Roman abacus, shown nearby in reconstruction, dates to the 1st century AD. It has eight long grooves containing up to five beads in each and eight shorter grooves having either one or no beads in each.

In the Middle Ages, the Abacus was further developed in Europe, and merchants and traders used it for bookkeeping and accounting. In the 17th century, the Abacus was introduced to Japan, where it was embraced and further refined, resulting in the development of a unique style of Abacus called the Soroban. Today, the Abacus is still used in many parts of the world, particularly in Asia, as a teaching and learning arithmetic tool.

So, they can be introduced to Abacus training, after that they can start practising addition and subtraction. Ancient Romans utilized stones as counters up and down on a smooth table to do calculations. It was developed to help bankers and money changers, businessmen and engineers. Additionally Romans invented other types of Abacus such as the dust Abacus, the line Abacus, the grooved Abacus.

• Teaching multiplication, e.g. 6 times 7, may be represented by shifting 7 beads on 6 wires.
• Pushing one bead from the top row to the center counts as five.
• A benefit of these counting boards on tables, was that they could be moved without disturbing the calculation— the table could be picked up and carried indoors.
• Toes were also used to count when they had to count more than ten.
• During the brief period when pocket calculators rose in popularity, the Sorocal/Sorokaru, a hybrid abacus digital calculator was manufactured to help abacus users in the transition.
• Its origin is unknown, but it is known that in ancient times, people used materials to count, according to what has been historically discovered.
• Talking of the structure of the Abacus, it has one upper and four lower beads in one rod.

The abacus, called Suan-Pan in Chinese, as it appears today, was first chronicled circa 1200 C.E. On each rod, the classic Chinese abacus has 2 beads on the upper deck and 5 on the lower deck; such an abacus is also referred to as a 2/5 abacus. The 2/5 style survived unchanged until circa 1850 at which time the 1/5 (one bead on the top deck and five beads on the bottom deck) abacus appeared. During Greek and Roman times, counting boards, like the Roman hand-abacus, that survive are constructed from stone and metal (as a point of reference, the Roman empire fell circa 500 C.E.). This time-line above (click to enlarge) shows the evolution from the earliest counting board to the present day abacus. The introduction of the Arabic numbering system in Western Europe stopped further development of counting boards.