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The Abacus
The abacus is one of the greatest inventions that humankind has ever conceived. It has made possible great advances in mathematics, commerce, science and technology. The abacus is no longer in wide spread use as before. Calculators and computers have replaced it in many places. However, it should be remembered that the modern day electronic calculators and computers all have their origins in the abacus. Without the abacus, these would not have been possible.
The abacus was invented more than 5000 years ago. Historians do not fully agree with the first civilization that created the abacus. Some believe that the abacus was invented by the Chinese about 3000 BC where as others are of the opinion that the abacus was the invention of the ancient Babylonians. The first abacus was most probably nothing more than a flat surface on which sand was spread. With the help of fingers or using a stylus, the person operating the abacus could write on the surface.
Later on developments were made and beads were used to represent numbers. The bead and rod abacus was invented in Egypt in about 500BC. This is abacus that we still use. By the middle ages, the abacus was in wide usage in the Europe, the Arab world and in the Orient. However, the wide spread adoption of the Hindu-Arabic numeral system led to a decrease in the use of the abacus. The 10 decimal system made it very easy to count and calculate without the use of the abacus.
Today, the abacus is still used in schools and teaching institutions as an educational aid. However, it is still used in some parts of the world. It is quite common to find the abacus in use in some towns of China.
Information on the abacus
American civilizations and the abacus
Video tutorials on the abacus
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