People move the beads to do the calculation. One in the upper part represents five and each of four in the lower part represents one. As it described, the original abacus had five beads ( suan zhu) bunched by a stick in each column, separated by a transverse rod, and arrayed in a wooden rectangle box. The word "abacus" was first mentioned by Xu Yue (160–220) in his book suanshu jiyi (算数记遗), or Notes on Traditions of Arithmetic Methods, in Han Dynasty. History Suanpan on the apothecary's counter in Along the River During the Qingming Festival painting 1573 Ming dynasty style suanpan This replaces clearing the beads by hand, or quickly rotating the suanpan around its horizontal center line to clear the beads by centrifugal force. When the clear-all button is pressed, two mechanical levers push the top row beads to the top position and the bottom row beads to the bottom position, thus clearing all numbers to zero. The modern suanpan has 4+1 beads, colored beads to indicate position and a clear-all button. Unlike the simple counting board used in elementary schools, very efficient suanpan techniques have been developed to do multiplication, division, addition, subtraction, square root and cube root operations at high speed. Suanpans can be used for functions other than counting. The suanpan can be reset to the starting position instantly by a quick jerk around the horizontal axis to spin all the beads away from the horizontal beam at the center. The beads are counted by moving them up or down towards the beam. The beads are usually rounded and made of a hardwood. There are two beads on each rod in the upper deck and five beads on each rod in the bottom deck. Usually, a suanpan is about 20 cm (8 in) tall and it comes in various widths depending on the application. However, the exact design of this suanpan is not known. The suanpan ( simplified Chinese: 算盘 traditional Chinese: 算盤 pinyin: suànpán), also spelled suan pan or souanpan ) is an abacus of Chinese origin first described in a 190 CE book of the Eastern Han Dynasty, namely Supplementary Notes on the Art of Figures written by Xu Yue. Chinese abacus Suanpan (the number represented in the picture is 6,302,715,408) Chinese Abacus An extended version of a suanpan A modern 4+1 suanpan (soroban) with a clear-all button Suanpan- reincarnation of counting rods The best range of toys to learn and unique gift ideas for kids to light up their interest in math and calculations. Before the abacus, the only methods people had to use for their mathematical calculations were their fingers and toes, or stones in the dirt. The abacus was also used in other early civilizations, including the Chinese, Egyptian, Greek, Persian, and Roman civilizations.īefore computers, calculators, or even arithmetic using paper and pencil, the abacus was the most advanced device for crunching numbers. There is evidence of the abacus used in Mesopotamia going back as early as 2700 B.C., for use with their sexagesimal numbering system. It is still unknown who built the first abacus and when it was built. Our modern terms “calculate” and “calculus” come from the term calculi, while the word “abacus” comes from a Greek word meaning a board or slab, or a calculating table. Small stones known as calculi, from the Greek helix, pebble, were moved along lines drawn in stone or sand. The instrument may have originated in the Middle East before the time of Christ.
The abacus is a computing device on which arithmetic calculations are performed by sliding counters (beads, pebbles, or flat discs) along rods, wires or lines. If you move away, you don’t count their value. If you move them toward the beam, you count their value. The beads are usually rounded and made of hardwood.
Modern Abacus: The modern abacus was first used in China around 2nd BC. The Chinese abacus, known as the Suanpan “Counting tray”, Mandarin suàn pan, Cantonese sun 3 puns 4), is typically 20 cm (8 in) tall and comes in various widths depending on the operator.
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