![]() ![]() Even today, those well-versed with the Chinese abacus can easily calculate at the speed of the modern calculator. Image of decimal, counting, system - 217078887. The abacus system in ancient China was an extremely advanced form of calculation. Photo about Horizontal picture of an ancient Chinese abacus. Before the appearance of Arabic numerals, it was a widely used calculating tool around. It was invented based on the long-term use of counting rods by the Chinese and was a great and important invention in ancient China. The abacus is a traditional calculating tool in China. The original position of the suanpan was when all the beads are away from the beam. The abacus is a simple calculating tool invented by Ancient Chinese. The extreme right vertical rod signified the ones place subsequently followed by tens, hundreds and thousand places while moving from right to left. When the beads were moved towards the beam, it meant counting them in and moving them away meant not counting their value. The basic calculation involved moving the beads up and down the rods towards and away from the horizontal beam. The suanpan was efficient for all simple and advanced calculations like addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, square root and cube root. The bottom beads were mainly used for counting decimal and hexadecimal numbers. The beads were usually designed in the shape of a rhombus. There were more than seven rods in the tray and each rod consisted of two beads in the heaven part and five beads in the earth section. The tray was divided into two main sections by a horizontal beam with the top section referred as the heaven while the bottom part is referred as the earth. The basic structure of the ancient Chinese abacus comprised of a tray, which has a height of about 20cms and varying widths. Basic Structure of ancient Chinese abacus Ancient Chinese abacus structure It was during the Ming dynasty that the Chinese abacus spread beyond the Chinese territory and reached Japan. This scroll was painted during the Song dynasty that ruled China from 960-1297 AD. The greatest proof of the use of abacus in ancient China can be derived in the long scroll Along the River During the Qingming Festival painted by Zhang Zeduan, where the suanpan is painted with an account book. Many of the ancient and powerful dynasties in China used the abacus. This abacus has horizontal beaded wires and does not require a decking system for number placement.The abacus in ancient China was also known as the suanpan, its literal meaning being the counting tray. In the early 20th century, the classroom abacus was developed to teach preschoolers to count and for simple arithmetic. The Japanese abacus has one bead on the upper deck and five on the bottom. The Chinese abacus is called a suanpan (su-WAN-pin). Today, the Japanese-style abacus is more commonly used throughout the world. This framed abacus represents the more familiar abacus in use today. /rebates/&.com252fstock-photo252fchinese-abacus-ancient. The Chinese Suanpan, or Abacus (at bottom) and Japanese Soroban (top) The Abacus has a rich history dating back over 800 years in China and with roots extending back over 2000 years in Rome, India and Mesopotamia. This form consisted of two “decks” that were divided by a bar with two beads on top and five beads on the bottom. These sand tablets were made with groves that allowed the user to count with pebbles and beads, sliding along the groves to keep count of inventories.ĭuring the 500s, the Chinese developed the first framed and beaded abacus. The word abacus is derived from the Greek word abax which means “plank.” The earliest history of the abacus can be traced to the Babylonians and Romans. ![]()
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