Abacus - History

Abacus history dates back to the Mayan culture which was highly developed and their accuracy ln calculations was so impeccable that they didn’t round off. Their "the then calendar" was so accurate that in 3257 years they used to have error of 1 day. The use of the abacus in Ancient Egypt finds a remark by the Greek historian Herodotus, who writes that the Egyptians manipulated the pebbles from right to left, opposite in direction to the Greek left-to-right method. Archaeologists have found ancient disks of various sizes that are thought to have been used as counters. However, wall depictions of this instrument have not been discovered. As the mankind evolved many counting devises and systems were developed in China, India, Korea,Persia, Roman,Japan, Russia, & all played important part in the development of modern calculating systems. According to historians it is believed to have evolved in around 300 B.C, but the debate is still going on the base of development of abacus. The closest resemblance is the Babylonians salamis tablet which has the same counting system as abacus, but many other races have been using the same system in other ways i.e not on the tool but on other mediums such as bone, woods, pebbles, calculi. The roman and the Greek abacus resembled each other. After salamis tablet which was made from stone, these two abacus were also made from stone but were different in size and numerical representation. The working of the abacus was more or less the same. The Greek had masters & slaves both. The master and slaves used abacus like tool to ensure correct counting in trade. It was a good practice as the government could keep record of the tax, debts and other financial needs more accurately. Among the most famous was the Chinese Supan abacus with 2 base 5, meaning 2 upper bead 5 lower bead. Due to complexities it had been replaced with the supan abacus from Japan. The function and methodology of using the abacus being the same which were developed during the development of Supan Abacus. Still today after many centuries the basics remain the same. The Japanes Soroban abacus was developed by the famous mathametician Seki Kowa by 1920. He removed 1 bead from the upper and the lower respective decs. Soroban has 1 base 4 and till today it is the most widely used Abacus. Many other abacus were developed in different parts of the world, and the method of use was more or less similar to that of the Chinese system. These abacus were different is size, colour, material, and as per the specific needs of a particular civilization, in fact the tools were synchronized as per their needs. With the globalization having a common impact on each nation’s educational system, the use of the tools increased and became widely popular among the educationist. As per the available facts it is established that counting devises evolved much before the birth of abacus and the system of calculations were different & reflected the development of races. The races such as Mayan, Indian & Greeks were prominent & dominate the development phase of mathematics. All these cultures had few things common, they had advanced system of calculation used for astronomy, science, trade & engineering. The ever increasing needs of the races always motivated them to do advance research in the field of mathematics.