![]() Then, as even larger quantities (greater than ten fingers and toes could represent) were counted, various natural items like pebbles, sea shells and twigs were used to help keep count. ![]() The earliest counting device was the human hand and its fingers, capable of counting up to 10 things toes were also used to count in tropical cultures. It is difficult to imagine counting without numbers, but there was a time when written numbers did not exist. The abacus is one of many types of counting devices which are used to count large numbers. where it was called apparently different names such as jupan, supan, or jusan.Abacus is a Latin word that has its origins in the Greek words abax or abakon (meaning "table" or "tablet") which in turn, possibly originated from the Semitic word abq, meaning "sand". The Chinese abacus had been “commercialized”, as what modern people can think of since it traveled to Korea and spread its influence in 1400 A.D. More Interesting Facts to Know about the Chinese AbacusĬhinese are known as entrepreneurs and good traders, and these traits were seen in the similarity of the Roman abacus to suànpán which can possibly give us the idea that the trade relationship between China and Rome is as old as the existence of the abacus. Though it can not do what calculators do, it can serve its purpose in many ways like accounting forĪnimals they killed and recording and storing details they gathered in computing.Ĭlick here to see some of our favorite Abacus designs.– Opens in new tab. ![]() ![]() This shows the concept that a simple idea can manifest complexities in its usage. The truth is, suànpán was built to handle operations like division, addition, multiplication, subtraction, and even square root and cube root. More so in resetting the tool, the abacist or the abacus user executes a quick shaking of the suànpán along the horizontal axis to move all the beads away from the center of the horizontal beam. You compute the value of something you are counting when you move the beads higher and you do not count the value when you move the beads down. The counting of the beads or the computation is done by moving each bead in either an up or down manner towards the beam. The typical suànpán had more than seven rods wherein two beads are on each rod in the higher deck and five beads in the bottom for decimal and hexadecimal calculation. The suànpán or the Chinese counting frame was a 20-centimeter in height and its width since it depends on the preference of the user. Since the Chinese abacus was very handy, it was no surprise that it was successfully proliferated in other countries ever since they learn the power of the tool which was made out of simple yet very effective in doing arithmetic processes. This form of computing device was created using wood and beads. And since the Chinese are known to relate their ways of like to their environment the attributes such as the top and bottom are considered heaven and earth respectively. So for the record, the existence of Chinese abacus can be dated back to the 14 century A.D. In China, for example, the idea of calculators, computers, and other computing machines had been seen in the earliest form of counting device they had (apart from the fingers people have), known to modern people as the abacus. Though ancient people weren’t able to have the technology that we have today, they, however, were as innovative as we are right now.
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