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 Other aids in calculating
Alternatives to the dust abacus were the wax tablet (usually black wax on a wooden tablet inscribed with an iron stylus) which was still found in Germany 400 years ago, the slate, which was popular from the 15th to the 19th century, and the blackboard, which came into use in the 16th century. These aids (as was the sand abacus) were forerunners of pencil and paper, which became the standard aid to calculation with the advent of cheap mass-produced paper in the late 19th century, even though paper was introduced to the West in the 12th century.
Exercise 1
Use your library or the internet to find out how the following were used in calculation:
quipu, soroban, jetons, Rechenpfennige, sangi. |
Exercise 2
A bead abacus (such as a suan-pan or soroban) can easily be modelled from a cardboard box, some plastic straws, and some tube pasta. Make one, and use it to carry out simple calculations. |
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