Many ancient methods of learning maths are coming back into practice. Though there are calculators available in all gadgets these days the ancient methods are gaining importance to improve the thinking capacity of the kids. Some ancient methods are abacus, ucmas etc.
Abacus was first used in ancient Egypt. There are proofs that abacus was used since 2700 BC. Abacus consists of a wooden frame with beads connected through wires.
It consists of two partitions with 1 row of beads in the top and 4 rows in the down chamber. It is further divided into columns which is used to represent the place value of a number and could be also used for decimals.
It is gaining popularity these days among kids as tool for doing calculations. It could be learnt easily and through practice the kids will be able to do addition, subtraction, multiplication and division faster and without any errors. Decimal calculations are also possible using abacus. It is an easy method to do the calculation for value until 9.999 billion.
How to use abacus?
The first step to use abacus is to align the rows and columns properly. When the beads are in their original position the value in the abacus is considered to be zero. The beads in the top row carry the value 5 and the beads in the bottom row carry the value 1. So once the value in the down row reaches 4 the bead in the top is used. The middle column in the abacus generally starts with ones place and the columns in the left are assigned tens, thousands and so on from the middle respectively. Similarly the columns towards the right from the middle are assigned decimal values.
So for value 1 the middle first bead is moved to the top and the next bead for 2 and henceforth till 4, when the count is 5 all four beads in the bottom rows are pushed down and the top bead in the top row are brought down. To do these operations the thumb is used to push the beads up and the index finger is used to push the beads down. You can assign the value to a bead according to your wish and do the calculations based on that.
There are slight variations in the tool in the different parts of the world.
Importance of abacus:
The advantages of using abacus are
- Improves memory power
- Improves hand and mind coordination
- Increases speed and accuracy in calculations
Types of abacus:
There is some more type of abacus available like the one with the beads sliding from left to right, some have colourful beads, some have a plastic frame and plastic beads, in older versions beans were used in place of beads.
Use of abacus:
By looking over the online source https://CheckPregnancy.com/ , you can know the importance of using abacus. It can be used for various purposes and various calculations. It could also be used as a fun toy to teach the kids math playfully.
