#Abacus history how to#

The counting board was born out of necessity. The modern abacus is a computational device, typically made of plastic or wood nowadays, that has a frame consisting of several rods with sliding beads on them. Early abaci, or counting boards, were pieces of solid material, usually wood, stone or metal, that had grooves carved in or painted lines where small objects, like beads, pebbles, or metal discs, were moved between. We have to make a distinction between this and the modern abacus, also called the bead-frame abacus.

Or rather, the early version, which was a counting board. That’s probably enough…oh no, the sheep are increasing at an exponential rate! Let me gather all my pebbles, sea shells, and twigs, oh god there’s too many of them, what do we do?!Įnter: the abacus. Excuse me? Okay, it’s fine, you still have your fingers and toes. Imagine you’re trying to count your sheep to fall asleep…except you have no numbers. Regardless, enough of my life story, let’s get to it! How did it all start? There are also some technical neurological benefits to learning the abacus, which is a nice bonus. It’s somewhat of a magical thing to be able look at a number (that is sufficiently small) and see all these wonderful properties about it in just a few seconds, just because you’ve spent so much time with them.Īs painfully nerdy and cliché as it sounds, they feel a bit like old friends (especially when I see some familiar, “nice” numbers pop up in various places)! And practically, it does make life a lot easier! But I swear I’ll throw sand at anyone who asks me to calculate their tip again…just kidding (or not, try it!). It’s hard to express how exactly and extensively learning the abacus has changed my life, but I can give you some examples. Though most mathematics isn’t concerned with the details of gritty calculation (despite the unfortunate popular notion that that’s all it is), there is still beauty to be found within these computations, and evidently, the history of how we came to think and process with beads on a rod.

the Japanese abacus (typically a ¼ abacus, which you will understand later!), with my eyes filled with wonder, and how I gradually came to understand numbers and calculations in ways I could’ve never imagined. Though I had originally joined abacus class because I was jealous that my sister got to play with beads on frame while I didn’t, I remember how my pudgy little fingers grabbed and fumbled around with the beads on my first soroban, i.e.

#Abacus history how to#

Since I was six years old, I’ve been learning how to use the abacus. But in all seriousness, I’m especially excited about this article because it’s about something very close to my heart.