According to DigoPaul, the term abacus comes from the Latin abăcus. It is a box made of wood that has 10 wires or ropes arranged in parallel. Each of these wires or ropes, in turn, has 10 balls that can be moved. The abacus, therefore, is an instrument that helps make simple calculations and calculations.
Origin
At school, the abacus was often used to teach students the basic operations of arithmetic. In commerce, on the other hand, the abacus was used to make accounts.
Historians believe that the abacus was the first man-made calculation instrument. Although he does not know precisely how it originated, it is estimated that the first abacuses were developed with rocks and lines that were drawn on the ground.
Specifically, for many the origin of this calculation instrument would be found in Asia, and more precisely in China. However, for other historians it would be found in Africa since it seems that in the Sahara some checkers were already used both to carry out the necessary calculation in commercial transactions and to entertain themselves through what was a series of games traditional.
In America, the local populations that were settled in the territory before the European arrival used a type of abacus known as quipu, whose cords could be tied in different ways to count or even to transmit messages.
The invention of the calculator and computers made the abacus less popular, even though it is still used in several Asian countries.
In this sense, we can establish that currently all over the world the abacus is used by billiard players. And it is that said element or system is the one they use to mark the points that each of the participants in a game adds up.
Images
Likewise, we cannot ignore the fact that this term in question has been combined with another series of words to give rise to a series of already generalized concepts. In this way, it is also frequent to hear about natural abacus that comes to define the hand of any human being. A denomination this that is due to the fact that this part of the body is considered to be the oldest abacus since it is the one that has allowed us to perform calculations and mathematical operations since ancient times.
In the same way, there is also the reading abacus, which is a table used to teach children to read, or the Pythagorean abacus, which is the one used to carry out mathematical multiplication tasks.
The Abaco Islands, meanwhile, are located in the north of the Bahamas. It is an archipelago formed by the Little Abacus, the Great Abacus islands and a large number of islands and cays of small size. Its main economic support is tourism. The Abaco islands have about 13,000 inhabitants, with Marsh Harbor being its most important city.
In classical architecture, finally, an abacus was a sort of square table that was placed on the horse and crowned the capital, functioning as seat to the architrave and protecting the decor.
