How to use an abacus how to#

It honestly wasn’t until I was an adult that I learned how to properly use the abacus and when I found out, I wished I had learned it’s use much earlier on in life. I couldn’t figure out what the significance of seven beads in each row meant. I’d count each bead under my finger and wonder what the beam in the middle was for.

I knew the abacus was a mathematical tool, but I had no idea what each bead meant. Replicating the sound, I’d tilt it down to hear the beads crash again as they hit the bottom. I’d tilt the abacus down to hear all the beads crashing to the top. I vividly remember playing with our old black, wooden abacus in our basement as a child.

How to use an abacus for android#

Train your skills with the Mental Abacus app for Android (link below) or visit for more information.How to Use an Abacus and Why Your Child Needs Oneĭid you grow up learning how to use an abacus? Although we had one in our home, in my mind, it was nothing more than a useless wooden toy. Video advice: Abacus Tutorial: 1 Basic functionĭescription: This film shows the basic functions of the classic Chinese abacus (5+2). This will allow your child to read the number from left to right – the same way that we represent numbers in writing. Note that for many children, this exercise will be a lot easier to follow if you turn the abacus 90 degrees to the left and place it down flat on a table. This will allow you to introduce large numbers to your child – for example you could represent what year it is, or even add large numbers together. Assign each row of the abacus place value – for example, the bottom row is the ones, the next one the tens, then the hundreds and so on. Finally, the entire quantity of beads which have been moved are counted, to reach the solution, 8.ġ3. For instance, for that sum “5 + 3”: 5 beads are counted and moved after which 3 more beads are counted and moved. Simple addition: Your son or daughter can enjoy simple addition questions one row from the abacus. I believe that every single person should know how to properly use one, so I decided to make this tutorial showing you exactly how to use one to do basic and advanced Mathematical operations!Įveryone loves an abacus*! It is such an elegant, clever tool.ħ. It is basically how people used to do Math before there was pencil and paper and before calculators were around. It can actually be used to add, subtract, multiply, and divide. Believe it or not, an abacus is actually a really useful tool for doing Mathematical equations.

In this video, I show you how to use an abacus. Video advice: How To Use An Abacus-Full Tutorial

The beads on the upper deck are known as the “heaven beads”, while the beads on the lower deck are known as the “earth” beads. Push the beads on both the upper and lower decks away from the middle beam. Make sure to orient the abacus so that the deck featuring the smaller amount of beads, typically two per row, sits at the top of the abacus. The Chinese Abacus: How to Use Place the abacus flat on a surface, such as a table or desk. Today, a design similar to the traditional Chinese tool is used for most abacus counting. Based on the idea of transferring numbers to the tool directly as the digits appear when written down, the abacus serves as an aid that allows its user to perform complex counting and mathematical procedures. Featuring rods of vertical beads split across two decks, the abacus serves as a tool that still finds use in many Asian cultures today.

in China, the modern abacus evolved from the counting boards that dated back to Babylonian civilization. The Chinese Abacus: How to Use – First appearing around 1200 A.