History

• The existence of the abacus can be traced back to 14th century China (1300s). As the abacus rose in popularity because of its arithmetic capabilities, other countries began to use it as well.
  
  

Construction

• The earliest abacus was made from wooden beads and small dowels. A hole was made through the center of the beads so that they could be slid onto the dowels. A rectangle wooden frame held the dowels in a parallel fashion while keeping the beads from coming off of the dowels.
  
  

Sigificance

• The abacus facilitates the evaluation of simple arithmetic problems. The beads are moved up or down the beams (dowels) depending on the computation being performed.
  
  

Uses

• In the 14th century, the abacus was mainly used to account for animals when hunting. For example, abacus users would move the beads up or down for every animal killed, and at the end of the day they would know how many they had killed. Today, the abacus is still used by street vendors to do simple math regarding monetary transactions. It is also used in other countries for various arithmetic purposes.
  
  

Fun Fact

• The Romans have their own variation of the abacus, which is called the suanpan. These have also been traced back to around the 14th century. This leads historians to think that China and Rome had some type of trading relationship that dates back to that time as well.