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How to Count on an Abacus. The abacus is an ancient calculating tool. Simple rules for
counting on an abacus are described here. You will need An abacus and a flat surface.
Step 1. Place the abacus on a flat surface with the upper section away from you. Push
all the beads in the upper and lower sections away from the central crossbar. The Chinese
abacus has 13 columns of counting beads divided into an upper and lower section by a horizontal
crossbeam. Each column of the upper section contains two beads, and each column in the
lower section five beads. Step 2. Move the corresponding number of beads on the right-most
lower deck column toward the central crossbeam to count from one to five. Each bead in the
right-most upper deck column has a value of five. Step 3. Set the 5-bead above the crossbeam
in the same column when you have five beads in the lower section and need to add one more.
Then clear the five beads in the lower section. Step 4. Set a second 5-bead in the same column
when you have five more beads set in the lower section and need to add one more. The two
beads in the upper section correspond to the number 10. Clear the five beads in the lower
section. Step 5. Continue counting in the same manner using columns to the left to represent
numbers of increasing value. From right to left, the first vertical column represents
units, the next represent 10s, then 100s, and so on. Did you know In 1946 a Japanese
abacist outperformed an electric calculating machine using a Japanese-style abacus.