#Abacus chinese invention how to
#Abacus chinese invention full

The beads are moved on the rods in order to do various mathematical calculations, similar to the beaded abacus we know today. There is a beam separating the rods left-right. The suanpan is a rectangular wooden tray, with several rods with wooden beads on them. Both the abacus and the Roman counting board were used throughout Europe, with the Roman counting board losing popularity because the beaded abacus was faster and easier to use. In the meantime, the beaded abacus was introduced in the 11th century AD by Pope Sylvester II. This version of the abacus/counting board became widespread throughout the Roman empire, and it was used throughout Europe until close to the 19th century AD. This version was a rectangular slab, had several rows that had pre-set pebbles in them, and they could be moved up-down (or left-right) to show numbers and make various calculations.

Ancient Romans Developed A Counting BoardĪncient Romans had developed a version of a simpler, base 10 counting board that was based on Greek and Babylonian abacus. They just didn’t use the abacus as extensively, until Persian scholars began imparting knowledge.

#Abacus chinese invention how to

That is to say, it’s not like other nations didn’t know how to calculate their sums for trade, they did. As trading continued, the abacus and the knowledge of how to use it became common throughout the world.

#Abacus chinese invention full

Trading was in full swing, but Persians also started trading knowledge with their immediate neighbors, such as India, China, Russia, and the Roman Empire. The abacus found its way to other countries sometime after 600 BC. It was a slab with rows cut into it, and again pebbled were moved across the row to show numbers. The abacus Persians used was also not the frame and beads version we may think of.

They used large slabs with columns and moved the pebbles right to left, as was usual in that part of the world. Egyptians Slabs and ColumnsĪncient Egyptians did not use an abacus as the Mesopotamians did, but the concept was very similar. Several civilizations contributed to making the abacus much more common, so let’s take a look at how it happened. So how did we get to the abacus we know today ? The road from the ancient abacus is long, and it starts with the Mesopotamians, but they were just the first. The physical form of this abacus was never recorded, but the belief was that it was a tablet with grooves cut into it (the columns), and pebbles moved across those columns.

This early form of abacus used a base 60 system (as opposed to our base 10), and several columns to represent the successive orders of magnitude in their number system. Mesopotamians invented the first version of an abacus, sometime between 2700 BC and 2300 BC. It might sound funny today, with our phone integrated calculators, but it was popular back in the day and had to be invented by someone, but who? Several centuries back the Abacus was the best and fastest way to do math. We’d move those white and red beads and learn what 2 looked like, what 5 looked like, and so on. The abacus is something most of us have interacted with, especially when we were kids and just started to learn how to count.