Of course I mean the digits on your hand, and not a binary counter, but the abacus is an important part of history and still in widespread use. There are several different configurations available. Mine, the one in the photo, is a Chinese abacus. The other popular one is the Japanese abacus, the Soroban. The number of beads on top and bottom may differ but the process remains the same. In most abacuses, the top beads, called the heaven beads, have a value of 5. The beads on the bottom, called the earth beads, have a value of 1. The place values read from right to left with the right most column being ones, then tens, hundreds, thousands, and so on. I realized that my photo is wrong as I wanted it to be all zeros, and that means that the 5 value beads at the top would be up, and not down on the center bar.
The abacus can be used for more than simple addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. It can be used to extract both square and cube roots. And, it is still taught in many Asian schools and can be faster than a hand-held calculator. There is also a great use for the blind, as the abacus is tactile and manual dexterity is more important than visual acuity.
I am not proficient enough to provide a tutorial, but there are some really good sites with excellent instructions if you want to go further. Here is a good start with an amazing tool...
The abacus can be used for more than simple addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. It can be used to extract both square and cube roots. And, it is still taught in many Asian schools and can be faster than a hand-held calculator. There is also a great use for the blind, as the abacus is tactile and manual dexterity is more important than visual acuity.
I am not proficient enough to provide a tutorial, but there are some really good sites with excellent instructions if you want to go further. Here is a good start with an amazing tool...
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