Technological advances have contributed to the dynamism of Mathematics, complex calculations are solved in a matter of seconds with the help of computers and developed mathematical software for the man. Mere objects like the calculator are present in people's daily lives, helping with basic operations: addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, potentiation and rooting.
The story lines are filled with several discoveries in order to streamline mathematical studies. The abacus is considered one of these discoveries, there are reports that the Babylonians used an abacus built in smooth stone around 2400 BC. C., the evidences of the use of the abacus in India, Mesopotamia, Greece and Egypt are overwhelming. Its emergence is linked to the development of counting concepts.
In the Middle Ages the abacus was used by the Romans to perform calculations. The use of the instrument by the Chinese and Japanese was of great importance for its development and improvement.
The abacus is a rectangular wooden object with sticks in a horizontal position, they represent the positions of the decimal places (unit, ten, hundred, thousand, units of thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, units of a million), each stick is composed of ten "marbles". The operations are performed according to the positional system, the abacus does not solve the calculations, it it simply contributes to memorizing the positional places while the calculations are done. mentally.
The apprehension of this positional principle, through the handling of the abacus, can help the student to better understand the numbering system and its operative techniques, making it an essential tool in teaching counting and basic operations in elementary education.
by Mark Noah
Graduated in Mathematics
Brazil School Team
See more:
Mesopotamia - Society and Culture
Ancient history - General history - Brazil School