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An abacus (pl.: abaci or abacuses), also called a counting frame, is a hand-operated calculating tool which was used from ancient times in the ancient Near East, Europe, China, and Russia, until the adoption of the Hindu–Arabic numeral system. [1] An abacus consists of a two-dimensional array of slidable beads (or similar objects). In their ...
The Late Roman hand abacus shown here as a reconstruction contains seven longer and seven shorter grooves used for whole number counting, the former having up to four beads in each, and the latter having just one. The rightmost two grooves were for fractional counting. The abacus was made of a metal plate where the beads ran in slots.
After the development of the abacus, no further advances were made until John Napier devised his numbering rods, or Napier's Bones, in 1617. Various forms of the Bones appeared, some approaching the beginning of mechanical computation, but it was not until 1642 that Blaise Pascal gave us the first mechanical calculating machine in the sense ...
In c. 1050 –771 BC, the south-pointing chariot was invented in ancient China. It was the first known geared mechanism to use a differential gear, which was later used in analog computers. The Chinese also invented a more sophisticated abacus from around the 2nd century BC known as the Chinese abacus. [citation needed]
The book describes methods of doing calculations without aid of an abacus, and as Ore (1948) confirms, for centuries after its publication the algorismists (followers of the style of calculation demonstrated in Liber Abaci) remained in conflict with the abacists (traditionalists who continued to use the abacus in conjunction with Roman numerals).
The suanpan (simplified Chinese: 算盘; traditional Chinese: 算盤; pinyin: suànpán), also spelled suan pan or souanpan [1] [2]) is an abacus of Chinese origin, earliest first known written documentation of the Chinese abacus dates to the 2nd century BCE during the Han dynasty, and later, described in a 190 CE book of the Eastern Han ...
The first abacus pictured below (fig. 5) is decorated with simple mouldings and ornaments, common during the 12th century, in Île-de-France, Normandy, Champagne, and Burgundy regions, and from the choir of Vézelay Abbey (fig. 6). Figure 7 shows a circular abacus used at windows in the side chapels of Notre Dame de Paris. Towards the end of ...
This is an accepted version of this page This is the latest accepted revision, reviewed on 16 January 2025. English mathematician, philosopher, and engineer (1791–1871) "Babbage" redirects here. For other uses, see Babbage (disambiguation). Charles Babbage KH FRS Babbage in 1860 Born (1791-12-26) 26 December 1791 London, England Died 18 October 1871 (1871-10-18) (aged 79) Marylebone, London ...