Who invented abacus

The wooden boards then gave way to even more more durable materials like marble and metal bronze used with stone or metal markers. This time-line above click to enlarge shows the evolution from the earliest counting board to the present day abacus.

The introduction of the Arabic numbering system in Western Europe stopped further development of counting boards. Compare the quick rate of progress in last one-thousand years to the slow progress during the first one-thousand years of civilization. It is a slab of white marble measuring cm in length, 75cm in width and 4.

In the center of the tablet are a set of 5 horizontal parallel lines divided equally by a perpendicular vertical line, capped with a semi-circle at the intersection of the bottom-most horizontal line and the vertical line. Below these lines is a wide space with a horizontal crack dividing it.

Below this crack is another group of eleven parallel lines, again divided into two sections by a line perpendicular to them but with the semi-circle at the top of the intersection; the third, sixth and ninth of these lines are marked with a cross where they intersect with the vertical line. Three sets of Greek symbols numbers from the acrophonic system are arranged along the left, right and bottom edges of the tablet. During Greek and Roman times, counting boards, like the Roman hand-abacus , that survive are constructed from stone and metal as a point of reference, the Roman empire fell circa C.

Over it is spread a cloth, bought in Easter term, with a special pattern, black, ruled with lines a foot, or a full span, apart. In the spaces between them are placed the counters, in their ranks. The accountant sits in the middle of his side of the table, so that everybody can see him, and so that his hand can move freely at its work. In the lowest space on the right, he places the heap of the pence; in the second the shillings; in the third the pounds…As he reckons, he must put out the counters and state the numbers simultaneously, lest there should be a mistake in the number.

When the sum demanded of the sheriff has been set out in heaps of counters, the payments made into the Treasury or otherwise are similarly set out in heaps underneath. The lower line is simply subtracted from the upper. In the Middle Ages, wood became the primary material for manufacturing counting boards; the orientation of the beads also switched from vertical to horizontal.

In Western Europe, as arithmetic calculating using written numbers gained in popularity in the latter part of the Middle Ages, the use of counting boards began to diminish and eventually disappear by Arithmetic brought about the invention of logarithms by John Napier and logarithmic scales by Edmund Gunter.

In , William Oughtred used these two inventions together and invented the slide rule which lasted until modern times when the scientific calculator became popular in the early s. The abacus, called Suan-Pan in Chinese, as it appears today, was first chronicled circa C. The abacus is a calculator in simple, mechanical form. It consists of a series of rods with beads attached that can be slid from one side to the other.

With ten beads on each row, the abacus allows its user to tally items and calculate figures into the many thousands. The origin of the abacus is a source of great debate. According to Chinese history, the abacus as we know it was invented sometime during the Ming Dynasty by mathematician Cheng Dawei. The Ming Dynasty lasted from to and was a period of cultural exchange and economic prosperity, at least in part.

The Chinese consider the abacus to be among the great inventions of ancient China and have even created an annual day of celebration around it. The Chinese abacus is used to add, subtract, divide, multiply and find square and cubic roots. The calculating process necessiated the use of both hands of the person using it. All the calculations were based on the movements of the beads. This was probably one of the greatest invention of the ancient days that helped the merchants and traders in their accounting.

The necessity- There was a time when there were only 9 1 to 9 digits available for counting purposes that too on fingers. This made it difficult for the traders to calculate the cost of selling and purchase of goods.

That was the time when the abacus instrument was made for long additions, subtractions, multiplications, divisions, negative numbers etc. It was earlier structured horizontally having a wooden frame and beads of stones and pebbles which were later changed to vertical alignment. These claims are supported by historical evidence such as ancient texts and archaeological excavations.

Abacus was used by Babylonians for mathematical operations of addition and subtraction but was difficult to use for complex calculations. According to the Greek historian Herodotus ancient Egyptians used abacus. Many archaeologists have found some ancient disks of various sizes in support of their claims. In the year , a tablet was found on the Greek Island dating back to BC. Originally thought to be a gaming board it is the oldest counting board discovered so far.

In ancient Rome, normally the calculation was done by moving counters on a smooth table. Calculi or pebbles were used for this purpose. Roman abacus was also used besides the counter method for calculations.

It is believed that the Romans made improvements in the primitive abaci. A series of wire or rods were used for counting beads, which were made of ivory or stone. The calculations were made by moving theses beads back and forth according to a particular set of rules.