The way you use an abacus to calculate depends on the style and design of the tool. History of Computers: From Abacus to Smartphones (PDF).This device features both an upper and a lower deck with rods and beads, and was called a 'suanpan.' Some historians hypothesize that the original abacus was invented in China thousands of years ago, around 500 B.C.E. The abacus, on the other hand, featured rods, and could have been made out of stone, metal, or wood. The predecessor to the modern abacus was the counting board, which featured groves or lines between which pebbles or beads were moved.

The Abacus: One of the Oldest Calculating Devices (PDF).

Other devices used before calculators include the slide rule, Napier's bones, and early machines like Babbage's analytical engine. The beads of the abacus eventually became vital to the trade of goods and services. As the earliest civilizations grew, merchants may have used stones or seeds to help them with equations. Early human beings may have used their fingers and toes for some problems.

However, the abacus is still an important learning device, and can still make complicated calculations easier.īefore the invention of modern calculators, people would calculate by using various counting devices. Calculators and computers are relatively new inventions, rendering the use of the abacus a bit obsolete. In ancient times, the abacus was used as a calculator it aided in performing mathematical processes like counting, addition, subtraction, and multiplication. An abacus is a device composed of beads that slide along rods, which fit into a frame.

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