This form, the bead or rod abacus, with which calculations can be made much more quickly than on paper, is still used in China, Japan, and other parts of the world. Out of this last type yet a fourth form of the abacus was developed-one with beads sliding on rods fixed in a frame. Instead of lines on which loose counters were laid, the table had movable counters sliding up and down grooves.Īll three types of abacuses were found at some time or other in ancient Rome -the dust abacus, the line abacus, and the grooved abacus. In rather remote times, a third form of abacus appeared in certain parts of the world. Various forms of this line abacus were in common use in Europe until the opening of the seventeenth century. In time this sanddust abacus gave place to a ruled table upon which counters or disks were arranged on lines to indicate numbers. The English word abacus is etymologically derived from the Greek abax, meaning a reckoning table covered with dust, which in turn comes from a Semitic word meaning dust or a reckoning table covered with dust or sand. The definite origin of the abacus is obscure, there is some reason for believing that its earliest form was a reckoning table covered with sand or fine dust, in which figures were drawn with a stylus, to be erased with the finger when necessary. It is still considered to be the most powerful calculating device, but can only be used by a trained abacus person. Abacus is an ancient tool used invented to perform mathematical operations.
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