Define Abacus 

An abacus, also called a counting frame, is a calculating tool for performing arithmetic processes. Nowadays, abaci are often constructed as a wooden frame with beads sliding on wires, but originally they were beads or stones moved in grooves in sand or on tablets of wood, stone, or metal. The abacus was in use centuries before the adoption of the written modern numeral system and is still widely used by merchants and clerks in China, Japan, Africa, India and elsewhere.The user of an abacus is called an abacist; he or she slides the beads of the abacus by hand.The use of the word abacus dates before 1387, when a Middle English work borrowed the word from Latin to describe a sandboard abacus. The Latin word came from abakos, the Greek genitive form of abax ("calculating-table"). Because abax also had the sense of "table sprinkled with sand or dust, used for drawing geometric figures", some linguists speculate that the Greek word may be derived from a Semitic root (cf. Phoenician abak, "sand", Hebrew ābāq (pronounced "a-vak"), "dust").[citation needed] The preferred plural of abacus is a subject of disagreement, but both abacuses and abaci are in use.

Answered by Kaushal at 5:39 PM on April 11, 2008

well kash, An abacus, also called a counting frame, is a calculating tool for performing arithmetic processes. Nowadays, abaci are often constructed as a wooden frame with beads sliding on wires, but originally they were beads or stones moved in grooves in sand or on tablets of wood, stone, or metal.

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The origins of the abacus are disputed, as many different cultures have been known to have used similar tools. It is known to have existed in Babylonia and in China, with invention to have taken place between 1000 BCE and 500 BCE. The first abacus was almost certainly based on a flat stone covered with sand or dust. Lines were drawn in the sand and pebbles used to aid calculations. From this, a variety of abaci were developed; the most popular were based on the bi-quinary system, using a combination of two bases (base-2 and base-5) to represent decimal numbers.

The use of the word abacus dates back to before 1387 when a Middle English work borrowed the word from Latin to describe a sandboard abacus. The Latin word came from abakos, the Greek genitive form of abax ("calculating-table"). Because abax also had the sense of "table sprinkled with sand or dust, used for drawing geometric figures," it is speculated by some linguists that the Greek word may be derived from a Semitic root, ābāq, the Hebrew word for "dust." Though details of the transmission are obscure, it may also be derived from the Phoenician word abak, meaning "sand". The plural of abacus is abaci.
Babylonian Abacus

A tablet found on the island of Salamis (near Greece) in 1846 dates back to the Babylonians of 300 BCE making it the oldest counting board discovered so far. It was originally thought to be a gaming board.

Its construction is a slab of white marble measuring 149 cm in length, 75 cm in width and 4.5 cm thick, on which are 5 groups of markings. In the center of the tablet are a set of 5 parallel lines equally divided by a vertical line, capped with a semi-circle at the intersection of the bottom-most horizontal line and the single vertical line. Below these lines is a wide space with a horizontal crack dividing it. Below this crack is another group of eleven parallel lines, again divided into two sections by a line perpendicular to them but with the semi-circle at the top of the intersection; the third, sixth and ninth of these lines are marked with a cross where they intersect with the vertical line.
Roman Abacus

The Late Empire Roman abacus shown here in reconstruction contains eight long grooves containing up to five beads in each and eight shorter grooves having either one or no beads in each.

The groove marked I indicates units, X tens, and so on up to millions. The beads in the shorter grooves denote fives—five units, five tens, etc., essentially in a bi-quinary coded decimal system, obviously related to the Roman numerals. The short grooves on the right may have been used for marking Roman ounces.

Computations are made by means of beads which would probably have been slid up and down the grooves to indicate the value of each column.
Chinese Abacus

The suanpan (Simplified Chinese: 算盘, Traditional Chinese: 算盤; pinyin: suànpán) of the Chinese is similar to the Roman abacus in principle, though has a different construction, and it was designed to do both decimal and hexadecimal arithmetics.

The Chinese abacus is typically around 20 cm (8 inches) tall and it comes in various widths depending on the application. It usually has more than seven rods. There are two beads on each rod in the upper deck and five beads each in the bottom for both decimal and hexadecimal computation. The beads are usually rounded and made of a hard wood. The beads are counted by moving them up or down towards the beam. The a

Answered by Uttam at 1:50 PM on April 11, 2008

Well , An abacus is a calculator used first by the Chinese since about 500 BC, for addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division, as well as fractions and square root. It consists of a wood frame divided into 2 parts separated by a beam, with an upper deck of 2 rows of beads and a lower deck of 5 rows of beads.

There is a series of vertical rods on which wooden beads are allowed to slide freely. Its inventor is unknown. However, the abacus as we know it today did not appear in China until about 1200 A.D.


An Abacus is a device used for addition and subtraction, and the related operations of multiplication and division. It does not require the use of pen and paper, and it's good for any base number system.

There are two basic forms for the abacus: a specially marked flat surface used with counters (counting table), or a frame with beads strung on wires (bead frame).

Answered by ajay kumar at 7:34 AM on April 11, 2008

Abacus is the first of calculating devices used for addition and subtraction, and the related operations of multiplication and division. I
t was most probably imported by merchants traveling to China, it migrated to Korea (appr 1400) and later Japan (appr 1600).

There are two basic forms for the abacus: a specially marked flat surface used with counters and a frame with beads strung on wires.

Answered by Ashish Yadav at 8:42 PM on April 10, 2008

An abacus, also called a counting frame, is a calculating tool for performing arithmetic processes.
Abacus is a very old tool used for arithmetic. It is still used in some parts of the world. Sometimes blind people will use an abacus, because they can feel the numbers easily. The most common abacuses work by moving beads on rods.

Answered by Kajal at 7:16 PM on April 10, 2008

well, An abacus is a calculator used first by the Chinese since about 500 BC, for addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division, as well as fractions and square root. It consists of a wood frame divided into 2 parts separated by a beam, with an upper deck of 2 rows of beads and a lower deck of 5 rows of beads. There is a series of vertical rods on which wooden beads are allowed to slide freely. Its inventor is unknown. However, the abacus as we know it today did not appear in China until about 1200 A.D.
An abacus, also called a counting frame, is a calculating tool for performing arithmetic processes. Nowadays, abaci are often constructed as a wooden frame with beads sliding on wires, but originally they were beads or stones moved in grooves in sand or on tablets of wood, stone, or metal. The abacus was in use centuries before the adoption of the written modern numeral system and is still widely used by merchants and clerks in China, Japan, Africa, India and elsewhere.

Source site:http://en.wikipedia.org/w iki/Abacus

Answered by Saurabh at 5:23 PM on April 10, 2008

The evolution of computer has passed through a number of stages before it reached the present state of development. The earliest and simplest device that was used for calculations was the Abacus. Abacus was first developed by Chinese in 3000 B.C. It is still in use in some parts of Japan and China. It was simply a rectangular wooden frame, with rods carrying round beads. The frame is divided into two parts. One part consists of five beads whereas other consists of only two beads. In the part which consists of five beads, each bead represents digit one and in the second part each bead represents digit five. It is used for addition and subtraction.

Answered by Nishis at 4:24 PM on April 10, 2008

well kash An abacus is a manual aid to calculating that consists of beads or disks that can be moved up and down on a series of sticks or strings within a usually wooden frame. The abacus itself doesn't calculate; it's simply a device for helping a human being to calculate by remembering what has been counted. The modern Chinese abacus, which is still widely used in China and other countries, dates from about 1200 A.D. It is possible that it derives from the earlier counting boards used around the Mediterranean as early as 300 B. C. An Aztec version of an abacus, circa 900-1000 A.D., is made from maize (corn) threaded through strings mounted in a wooden frame.

There are Japanese and Russian versions of the abacus and several modern "improved" versions.

Answered by sujata at 4:19 PM on April 10, 2008

An abacus, also called a counting frame, is a calculating tool for performing arithmetic processes. Nowadays, abaci are often constructed as a wooden frame with beads sliding on wires, but originally they were beads or stones moved in grooves in sand or on tablets of wood, stone, or metal.

Answered by Hemant at 4:01 PM on April 10, 2008

An abacus is a manual aid to calculating that consists of beads or disks that can be moved up and down on a series of sticks or strings within a usually wooden frame. The abacus itself doesn't calculate; it's simply a device for helping a human being to calculate by remembering what has been counted.

Answered by poonam at 3:43 PM on April 10, 2008