Saturday, January 29, 2011

Challenge #4

Technology

*The name of this apparatus comes from the Greek word meaning "calculating board."

*It is generally recognized as the first calculating machine, since it was used by Babylonian traders as early as 1000 BC and in China in 800 BC.

*This counting machine is still used in many countries to teach the elements of the numerical system.

*The device consists of beads that serve as counters, strung on wires in a frame; different wires represent different place values (1s, 10s, 100s, 1000s, etc..).

*By moving the beads up and down, an adept user can quickly perform addition, subtraction, multiplication and division; no pen, paper or electricity is used, and it works in any base number system.

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