Using an Abacus

Mankind has used abacuses, of one kind or another, since the dawn of civilizations to meet their calculation and accounting needs. The modern version of the Eastern abacus, originated in China, is still used nowadays around the world to help children improve their numerical skills. This book is a guide to the use of this modern abacus. After studying it, the reader will know:

• What is an abacus in a general sense.
• What are the special characteristics of the eastern abacus.
• How to use it effectively to perform the four basic arithmetic operations.

Table of contents

Several types of eastern abacus

• Basic concepts
• Close-up of the eastern abacus
• Addition and subtraction
• Modern multiplication
• Modern division

Possible extension of the book

This book, as an elementary guide to the use of the eastern abacus, can be considered complete since it teaches how to perform the four elementary arithmetic operations, but obviously it can be expanded in many ways, for example by adding chapters on:

• Negative numbers
• Special multiplication methods
• Special division methods
• Roots
• etc.

Alternatively, it could be continued in a second book on advanced modern abacus methods.

See also

Wikibook: Traditional Abacus and Bead Arithmetic

This book offers a look at traditional arithmetic methods not currently taught with the modern abacus.

Print version

Print version (In preparation)

Obsolete pages (stubs)

The following pages have been around for over a decade without any actual content and have now been superseded by the previous ones. They should be marked for deletion.

• Introduction
• Basics
• Addition
• Subtraction
• Multiplication
  • Exercises
• Division
  • Exercises
• Negative Numbers