Abacus

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It has been suggested that Abax be merged into this article or section. (Discuss)
For the flat slab at the top of a column, see Abacus (architecture).
An abacus (plurals abacuses or abaci), also called a counting frame, is a calculating
tool for performing arithmetical processes, often constructed as a wooden frame with
beads sliding on wires. The user, called an abacist, slides counters by hand on rods or in
grooves.[1] It was in use centuries before the adoption of the written Hindu-Arabic
numeral system and is still widely used by merchants and clerks in China, Japan, Africa
and elsewhere.

A Chinese abacus

Contents
[hide]

1 Origins
2 Babylonian abacus
3 Egyptian abacus
4 Greek abacus
5 Roman abacus
6 Indian abacus
7 Chinese abacus
8 Japanese abacus
9 Native American abaci
10 Russian abacus
11 School abacus
12 Uses by the blind
13 Notes
14 References
15 See also
16 Further reading

17 External links
o 17.1 Tutorials
o

17.2 Abacus curiosities

[edit] Origins
The first abacus was almost certainly based on a flat stone covered with sand or dust.
Words and letters were drawn in the sand; eventually numbers were added[2] and pebbles
used to aid calculations. The Babylonians used this dust abacus as early as 2400 BC.[3]
The origin of the counter abacus with strings is obscure, but India, Mesopotamia or Egypt
are seen as probable points of origin.[4] China played an essential part in the development
and evolution of the abacus.[5]
From this, a variety of abaci were developed; the most popular were based on the biquinary system, using a combination of two bases (base-2 and base-5) to represent
decimal numbers. But the earliest abaci used first in Mesopotamia and later by scribes in
Egypt and Greece used sexagesimal numbers represented with factors of 5, 2, 3, and 2 for
each digit.
The use of the word abacus dates from before 1387, when a Middle English work
borrowed the word from Latin to describe a sandboard abacus. The Latin word came
from abakos, the Greek genitive form of abax ("calculating-table"). Because abax also
had the sense of "table sprinkled with sand or dust, used for drawing geometric figures",
some linguists speculate that the Greek word may be derived from a Semitic root, bq,
the Hebrew word for "dust". Though details of the transmission are obscure, it may also
be derived from the Phoenician word abak, meaning "sand". The preferred plural of
abacus is a subject of disagreement, but both abacuses[6] and abaci[7] are in use.

[edit] Babylonian abacus

Babylonians may have used the abacus for mathematical operations of addition and
subtraction. However, this primitive device proved difficult to use for more complex
calculations.[8] Some scholars point to a character from the Babylonian cuniform which
may have been derived from a representation of the abacus.[9]

[edit] Egyptian abacus

The use of the abacus in ancient Egypt is mentioned by the Greek historian Herodotus,
who writes that the manner of its usage by the Egyptians was opposite in direction when
compared with the Greek method. Archeologists have found ancient disks of various
sizes that are thought to have been used as counters. However, wall depictions of this
instruments have not been discovered, casting some doubt over the extent of use of this
instrument.[10]

[edit] Greek abacus

A tablet found on the Greek island Salamis in 1846 dates back to 300 BC, making it the
oldest counting board discovered so far. It was originally thought to be a gaming board.
It is a slab of white marble 149 cm long, 75 cm wide, and 4.5 cm thick, on which are 5
groups of markings. In the center of the tablet is a set of 5 parallel lines equally divided
by a vertical line, capped with a semi-circle at the intersection of the bottom-most
horizontal line and the single vertical line. Below these lines is a wide space with a
horizontal crack dividing it. Below this crack is another group of eleven parallel lines,
again divided into two sections by a line perpendicular to them, but with the semi-circle
at the top of the intersection; the third, sixth and ninth of these lines are marked with a
cross where they intersect with the vertical line.

[edit] Roman abacus

Reconstructed Roman Abacus

Main article: Roman abacus
The normal method of calculation in ancient Rome, as in Greece, was by moving
counters on a smooth table. Originally pebbles, calculi, were used. Later, and in medieval
Europe, jetons were manufactured. Marked lines indicated units, fives, tens etc. as in the
Roman numeral system. This system of 'counter casting' continued into the late Roman
empire and in medieval Europe, and persisted in limited use into the nineteenth century.
[11]

In addition to the more common method using loose counters, several specimens have
been found of a Roman abacus, shown here in reconstruction. It has eight long grooves
containing up to five beads in each and eight shorter grooves having either one or no
beads in each.
The groove marked I indicates units, X tens, and so on up to millions. The beads in the
shorter grooves denote fivesfive units, five tens etc., essentially in a bi-quinary coded

decimal system, obviously related to the Roman numerals. The short grooves on the right
may have been used for marking Roman ounces.

[edit] Indian abacus

1st century sources, such as the Abhidharmakosa describe the knowledge and use of
abacus in India.[12] Around the 5th century, Indian clerks were already finding new ways
of recording the contents of the Abacus.[13] Hindu texts used the term sunya to indicate the
empty column on the abacus.[14]

[edit] Chinese abacus

Suanpan (the number represented in the picture is 6,302,715,408)

Main article: Suanpan
The earliest mention of a suanpan is found in a First Century book of the Eastern Han
Dynasty, namely Supplementary Notes on the Art of Figures written by Xu Yue.[15]
However, the exact design of this suanpan is not known.
Usually, a suanpan is about 20 cm tall and it comes in various widths depending on the
operator. It usually has more than seven rods. There are two beads on each rod in the
upper deck and five beads each in the bottom for both decimal and hexadecimal
computation. The beads are usually rounded and made of a hardwood. The beads are
counted by moving them up or down towards the beam. The suanpan can be reset to the
starting position instantly by a quick jerk along the horizontal axis to spin all the beads
away from the horizontal beam at the center.
Suanpans can be used for functions other than counting. 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.
In the famous long scroll Riverside Scenes at Qingming Festival painted by Zhang
Zeduan (1085-1145) during the Song Dynasty (960-1297), a suanpan is clearly seen lying
beside an account book and doctor's prescriptions on the counter of an apothecary's
(Feibao).
The similarity of the Roman abacus to the Chinese one suggests that one could have
inspired the other, as there is some evidence of a trade relationship between the Roman

Empire and China. However, no direct connection can be demonstrated, and the
similarity of the abaci may be coincidental, both ultimately arising from counting with
five fingers per hand. Where the Roman model (like most modern Japanese) has 4 plus 1
bead per decimal place, the standard suanpan has 5 plus 2, allowing less challenging
arithmetic algorithms, and also allowing use with a hexadecimal numeral system. Instead
of running on wires as in the Chinese and Japanese models, the beads of Roman model
run in groves, presumably making arithmetic calculations much slower.
Another possible source of the suanpan is Chinese counting rods, which operated with a
decimal system but lacked the concept of zero as a place holder. The zero was probably
introduced to the Chinese in the Tang Dynasty (618-907) when travel in the Indian Ocean
and the Middle East would have provided direct contact with India and Islam allowing
them to acquire the concept of zero and the decimal point from Indian and Islamic
merchants and mathematicians.

[edit] Japanese abacus

Japanese soroban
A soroban (, , lit. "Counting tray") is a Japanese-modified version of the
Chinese abacus. The Japanese first eliminated one bead from the upper deck and later
another bead from the lower deck in each column of the Chinese abacus, making the
Japanese abacus purely for the decimal system. The Japanese also eliminated the use of
the Qiuchu (Chinese division table). However, the Chinese division table was still used
when there were 5 lower beads. There came the debate of the multiplication table versus
the division table, with the school of multiplication table prevailing in the 1920s.
The rods (number of digits) usually increase to 21, 23, 27 or even 31, thus allowing
calculation for more digits or representations of several different numbers at the same
time. The soroban is about 8 cm (3 inches) tall. The beads on a soroban are usually
shaped as a double cone (bi-cone) to facilitate ease of movement.
Soroban is taught in primary schools as a part of lessons in mathematics because the
decimal numerical system can be demonstrated visually. When teaching the soroban, a
song-like instruction is given by the teacher. Often, primary school students may bring
along with them two sorobans, one with 1 upper bead and 5 lower beads, the other with 1
upper bead with 4 lower beads. Despite the advent of handheld calculators, some parents
send their children to private tutors to learn soroban because proficiency in soroban
calculation can be easily converted to mental arithmetic at a highly advanced level.

On November 12, 1946, a contest was held in Tokyo between the Japanese soroban, used
by Kiyoshi Matsuzaki, and an electric calculator, operated by US Army Private Thomas
Nathan Wood. The bases for scoring in the contest were speed and accuracy of results in
all four basic arithmetic operations and a problem which combines all four. The soroban
won 4 to 1 with the electric calculator prevailing in multiplication.

[edit] Native American abaci

Representation of an Inca quipu

Some sources mention the use of an abacus called a nepohualtzintzin in ancient Aztec
culture. This Mesoamerican abacus used a 5-digit base-20 system.
The quipu of the Incas was a system of knotted cords used to record numerical data, like
advanced tally sticksbut not used to perform calculations. Calculations were carried out
using a yupana (quechua for "counting tool"; see figure) which was still in use after the
conquest of Peru. The working principle of a yupana is unknown, but in 2001 an
explanation of the mathematical basis of these instruments has been proposed: comparing
the form of several yupanas, it appears that calculations were based using the Fibonacci
sequence 1,1,2,3,5 and powers of 10, 20 and 40 as place values for the different fields in
the instrument. Using the Fibonacci sequence would keep the number of grains within
any one field at minimum.

[edit] Russian abacus

Russian abacus
The Russian abacus, the schoty (), usually has a single slanted deck, with ten beads
on each wire (except one wire which has four beads, for quarter-ruble fractions). This
wire is usually near the user. (Older models have another 4-bead wire for quarter-kopeks,
which were minted until 1916.) The Russian abacus is often used vertically, with wires
from left to right in the manner of a book. The wires are usually bowed to bulge upward
in the center, in order to keep the beads pinned to either of the two sides. It is cleared
when all the beads are moved to the right. During manipulation, beads are moved to the
left. For easy viewing, the middle 2 beads on each wire (the 5th and 6th bead) usually
have a colour different from the other 8 beads. Likewise, the left bead of the thousands
wire (and the million wire, if present) may have a different color.
The Russian abacus is still in use today in shops and markets throughout the former
Soviet Union, although it is no longer taught in most schools.

[edit] School abacus

School abacus used in Danish elementary school. Early 20th century.

Around the world, abaci have been used in pre-schools and elementary schools as an aid
in teaching the numeral system and arithmetic. In Western countries, a bead frame
similar to the Russian abacus but with straight wires has been common (see image). It is
still often seen as a plastic or wooden toy.
The type of abacus shown here is often used to represent numbers without the use of
place value. Each bead and each wire has the same value and used in this way it can
represent numbers up to 100.
The most significant educational advantage of using an abacus, rather than loose beads or
counters, when practicing counting and simple addition is that it gives the student an
awareness of the groupings of 10 which are the foundation of our number system.
Although adults take this base 10 structure for granted, it is actually difficult to learn.
Many 6-year-olds can count to 100 by rote with only a slight awareness of the patterns
involved.

[edit] Uses by the blind

An adapted abacus, called a Cranmer abacus is still commonly used by individuals who
are blind. A piece of soft fabric or rubber is placed behind the beads so that they do not
move inadvertently. This keeps the beads in place while the users feel or manipulate
them. They use an abacus to perform the mathematical functions multiplication, division,
addition, subtraction, square root and cubic root.
Although blind students have benefited from talking calculators, the abacus is still very
often taught to these students in early grades, both in public schools and state schools for
the blind. The abacus teaches math skills that can never be replaced with talking
calculators and is an important learning tool for blind students. Blind students also
complete math assignments using a braille-writer and Nemeth code (a type of braille code
for math) but large multiplication and long division problems can be long and difficult.
The abacus gives blind and visually impaired students a tool to compute math problems
that equals the speed and mathematical knowledge required by their sighted peers using
pencil and paper. Many blind people find this number machine a very useful tool
throughout life.

[edit] Notes
1. ^ "abacist", "abacus", in Merriam-Webster's Third New International Dictionary
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.

Unabridged, 2000, Version 2.5.

^ "abacus." Encyclopdia Britannica. 3 February 2007
^ Reilly, page 825
^ Smith, page 159
^ Video: Computers: The Abacus. Encyclopdia Britannica.
^ Merriam-Webster's 2003
^ Oxford English Dictionary, 1989

8. ^ Carruccio, page 14
9. ^ Crump, page 188
10. ^ Smith, page 160
11. ^ Pullan, page 18
12. ^ Stearns, page 44
13. ^ Krner, page 232
14. ^ Mollin, page 3
15. ^ Peng Yoke Ho, page 71

[edit] References

Reilly, Edwin D.; William Leonard Langer (2004). Concise Encyclopedia of

Computer Science. John Wiley and Sons. ISBN ISBN 0470090952.

Krner, Thomas William; William Leonard Langer (1996). The Pleasures of

Counting. Houghton Mifflin Books. ISBN ISBN 0521568234.

Mollin, Richard Anthony (1998). Fundamental Number Theory with Applications.

CRC Press. ISBN ISBN 0849339871.

Smith, David Eugene. History of Mathematics (Volume 2). Courier Dover

Publications. ISBN ISBN 0486204308.

Crump, Thomas (1992). The Japanese Numbers Game: The Use and
Understanding of Numbers in Modern Japan. Routledge. ISBN ISBN
0415056098.

Carruccio, Ettore (2006). Mathematics And Logic in History And in

Contemporary Thought. Aldine Transaction. ISBN ISBN 0202308502.

Stearns, Peter N.; William Leonard Langer (2001). The Encyclopedia of World
History: Ancient, Medieval, and Modern, Chronologically Arranged. Houghton
Mifflin Books. ISBN ISBN 0395652375.

Peng Yoke Ho (2000). Li, Qi and Shu: An Introduction to Science and Civilization
in China. Courier Dover Publications. ISBN ISBN 0486414450.

(2003) Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, 11th edtion, Merriam-Webster,

Inc. ISBN 0877798095.

"abacus". Oxford English Dictionary. Oxford University Press. 2nd ed. 1989.

Pullan, J. M. (1968). The History of the Abacus. London: Books That Matter.
ISBN 0-09-089410-3.

[edit] See also

Abacus logic
Abacus system
Chisanbop
Napier's bones

[edit] Further reading

Menninger, Karl W. (1969). Number Words and Number Symbols: A Cultural

History of Numbers. MIT Press. ISBN 0-262-13040-8.
Kojima, Takashi (1954). The Japanese Abacus: its Use and Theory. Tokyo:
Charles E. Tuttle. ISBN 0-8048-0278-5.

[edit] External links

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[edit] Tutorials

Min Multimedia
Suan Pan
Abacus: Mystery of the Bead - an Abacus Manual

[edit] Abacus curiosities

The Stephenson Abacus, by Steve Stephenson

Abacus in Various Number Systems at cut-the-knot
Java applet of Chinese, Japanese and Russian abaci
An atomic-scale abacus
History of the abacus and more
Information on the abacus
Gerbert d'Aurillac's abacus using Hindu-Arabic numerals at Convergence

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abacus"

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