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Mathematics, Numbers, and Computers - How Long Has The Abacus Been Used? Is It Still Used?

How long has the abacus been used? Is it still used?

The abacus has its roots in the ancient counting boards of Mesopotamia, dating back to around 3500 B.C. (Mesopotamia was an ancient empire located in present-day Iraq.) Counting boards were crude devices consisting of pitted boards with pebbles or beads, used to perform calculations. The writings of Herodotus, the Greek historian who lived around 400 B.C., make mention of the abacus. The modern abacus, which uses beads that slide on parallel hooked rods, was invented in fifteenth-century China.

Before the invention of decimal number systems (also called the base-ten system, it uses ten symbols, 0 through 9, with place values in powers of ten—101 = 10; 102 =100; 103=1000), which led to widespread use of paper-and-pencil methods of calculation, the abacus was essential for performing multiplication and division. The...

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