Chapter 51 Section 2 Abacus and Abacus

The abacus is a calculation tool invented in ancient my country, and the abacus calculation method is about how to use the abacus to calculate.Even today's electronic computers are quite developed, but still can't completely replace the efficacy and effect of the abacus.Adding and subtracting with an abacus is much faster than a computer.Therefore, until today, the abacus still has its vitality.There is a special abacus research organization in Japan, and it is very active. When was the abacus invented?The jury is still out.Tao Zongyi, a writer at the end of the Yuan Dynasty and the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, said in his book "The Record of Stopping Farming in Nancun" that there is a type of servant who is called "Leipanzhu" when he first comes, and does not dial automatically.After a period of time, it is called "abacus beads", and it will move when you dial it.After waiting for a long time, it is called "Buddha's top bead", and it stays still all day long, even if it is dialed.Some people think that the "abacus beads" that move when dialed refer to abacus.That is to say, at the end of the Yuan Dynasty and the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, the abacus had already come out.

After the middle of the Ming Dynasty, abacus was quite popular, and a large number of works on abacus appeared.Among them, the most famous is "Zhizhi Algorithm Tongzong", which was written in 1592 AD, which was a mathematical work with great influence in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. The author of "Zhizhi Algorithm Tongzong" is Cheng Dawei, styled Rusi, named Binqu, from Xiuning, Anhui.He was originally a businessman, but he had a strong interest in mathematics. After decades of hard work and accumulation, he wrote this book at the age of 60.The book has 17 volumes, divided into nine chapters in imitation of "Nine Chapters of Arithmetic", and contains 595 questions.The book describes in detail the positioning method of abacus calculation, the four arithmetic methods of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division of abacus calculation, and various abacus formulas, most of which are still used today.

Abacus and abacus play a very important role in the popularization of practical mathematics, and are advanced calculation tools and calculation methods in the ancient world.