What is Chinese abacus

[moon88]

Dear cecil,
What is chinese abacus? Don't know if spelled it correctly. Thanks.

[Cecil Lee]

Dear Anon,
1. Please find pictures of a `small version' of the Chinese Abacus:-


2. The above is a small, abacus. There are larger ones.
3. Usually, they are made of wood.
4. What is the Chinese Abacus?
It is a calculator. Where beads are moved up and down and by feel and looking at the beads, complex calculations are made.
6. An expert abacus user can easily calculate numbers faster than one can key in to a modern liquid display calculator.
7. Generally, one can say that the movement of the beads like the computer `bits' and `bytes' i.e. On and off system.
8. In fact, Singapore, introduced the abacus to the schools and this enable students to `fair' better at mathematics. Thus providing a competitive advantage to the students.
Many other countries e.g. Taiwan have students who excel in using the Abacus. The speed and complexity of calculation by some of these top students can excel that of a computer or that manually done by students using other `techniques'.
9. Larger abacus are found especially (in the past) in retail outlets all over the country. These accountants, use it to do their accounts.
Depending on the size of calcuations, some abacus, have more beads especially in the `top' divider row for such purposes.
The soothing sound of someone `clicking' on it is simply wonderful. But unfortunately, uncommon nowadays.
Warmest Regards,
Cecil

Quote

On 4/13/00 1:56:00 PM, Anonymous wrote:
Dear cecil,
What is chinese abacus? Don't
know if spelled it correctly.
Thanks.