I bought this abacus in San Francisco's China Town while on a family vacation
during the summer before 4th grade. By the time we got home I knew how to use
it to add, subtract, multiply and divide.
This is a Chinese style abacus called a suanpan. The Japanese style, called a
soroban, only has 1 bead on the top and 4 on the bottom. |
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Here are some links to good abacus sites:
http://webhome.idirect.com/~totton/abacus/
Abacus: Mystery of the Bead
Wikipedia more than you wanted to know about abacus history.
[more to come...]
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