Chinese Abacus

Dublin Core

Title

Chinese Abacus

Description

Chinese abacus is a tool for calculation. In the abacus, there are two beads on each rod in the upper deck and five beads on each rod in the bottom deck. This configuration is used for both decimal and hexadecimal computation. The beads are usually rounded and made of a hardwood. The beads are counted by moving them up or down towards the beam. The suanpan can be reset to the starting position instantly by a quick jerk around the horizontal axis to spin all the beads away from the horizontal beam at the center.

Creator

Unknown

Date

Five Emperors

Contributor

Di Shou

Relation

Supplementary Notes on the Art of Figures

Type

Physical Object

Coverage

Chinese mathematics

Collection

Citation

Unknown, “ Chinese Abacus,” The Ancient Chinese Technology, accessed January 10, 2025, https://learning.hku.hk/ccch9051/group-1/items/show/1.