The Chinese Abacus
1 min readThe Chinese abacus,known as the Suanpan,is typically 20 centimeter tall and comes in various widths depending on the operator.It usually has more than seven rods.There are two Beads in the upper deck and five beads in the lower on each rod.
In the long scroll,along the River During the Qingming Festival painted by Zhang Zeduan during the Song Dynasty (960-1297 AD), a suanpan is clearly seen lying beside an account book and doctor’s prescriptions on the counter of an apothecary.
The beads are counted by moving them up or down towards the beam.If you move them toward the beam,you count their value.If you move away,you don’t count their value.
The efficient Suanpan techniques have been developed to do multiplication, division,addition,subtraction,square root and cube root operations at high speed.There are currently schools teaching students how to use it.
