The history of the Chinese abacus according to Wikipedia, the free encyclopaedia on the internet goes on to state, for the benefit of all the parents private abacus math for kids tutors and children who attend the abacus math lessons at the two Math Genie schools located in the state of New Jersey in the United States of America, quote “Another possible source of the suànpán 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 AD) when travel in the Indian Ocean and the Middle East would have provided direct contact with India, allowing them to acquire the concept of zero and the decimal point from Indian merchants and mathematicians. Calculating-Table by Gregor Reisch: Margarita Philosophica, 1508. The woodcut shows Arithmetical instructing an algorist and an abacist (inaccurately represented as Boethius and Pythagoras). There was keen competition between the two from the introduction of the Algebra into Europe in the 12th century until its triumph in the 16th. The abacus (plural abaci or abacuses), also called a counting frame, is a calculating tool used primarily in parts of Asia for performing arithmetic processes. Today, abaci are often constructed as a bamboo frame with beads sliding on wires, but originally they were beans or stones moved in grooves in sand or on tablets of wood, stone, or metal. The abacus was in use centuries before the adoption of the written modern numeral system and is still widely used by merchants, traders and clerks in Asia, Africa, and elsewhere. The user of an abacus is called an abacist” end quote. The history and emergence of the abacus in Indian is detailed by Wikipedia as follows, quote “First century sources, such as the Abhidharmakosa describe the knowledge and use of abacus in India. Around the 5th century, Indian clerks were already finding new ways of recording the contents of the Abacus. Hindu texts used the term shunya (zero) to indicate the empty column on the abacus. The history and emergence of the abacus in Japan is detailed by Wikipedia as follows, quote “In Japanese, the abacus is called Soroban ("Counting tray"), imported from China around 1600.[22] The 1/4 abacus, which is suited to decimal calculation, appeared circa 1930, and became widespread as the Japanese abandoned hexadecimal weight calculation which was still common in China. The abacus is still manufactured in Japan today even with the proliferation, practicality, and affordability of pocket electronic calculators. The use of the Soroban is still taught in Japanese primary schools as part of mathematics, primarily as an aid to faster mental calculation. Using visual imagery of a Soroban, one can arrive at the answer in the same time or even faster than is possible when using a physical instrument” end quote. Visit Math For Kids Problems Abacus Lessons Everyday Cool Games Private Tutors to contact Math Genie and enroll your child to improve their math ability.
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