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Computing Equipment Abacus
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Every great item that has ever made its mark in history has all started from somewhere. As tiny as they are, you would think that beads wouldn't have that much of an important backstory, right? Wrong! Did you forget about the abacus? It's only known as one of history's FIRST mathematical tools...and it's completely made out of beads! Some people refer to it as "the first calculator," since it was created LONG before the technology age came along.
HISTORY
It's been documented by several sources that the very first use of an abacus dates back to the days of 2400 BC. Supposedly, it was made with sand and pebbles. The Babylonians used it. Surprisingly, they weren't the only ones who used the abacus. China and India useds abacus' with beads in the first century. An exact date hasn't been pinpointed just yet, but it's been said that the abacus was used with beads by these two countries at some point only two times in a three year period. Depending on who you ask, there are many estimations regarding approximately where these abacus' were first useds. Some researchers have been known to say Ancient Egypt or Mesopotamia. However, others have disagreed, saying it was used in Rome or Greece around approximately 300 BC.
PURPOSE
There's one major benefit to children of any age when they use an abacus. When they use it to learn how to count and do addition, students learn how to work with groups of 10. As we all know, that's an extremely important number factor in math. Thanks to an abacus, children can easily count to 100.
In Japan, the use of an abacus has its own word, known as "Soroban." It is even taught as a subject in school to students, believe it or not! The reason for this is because decimals can be taught to students in Japan better with the use of pictures and visual aids, as opposed to the US, where working everything out on paper is encouraged. Also, instead of teaching Soroban by using books or paper, teachers sing to the students! Pretty unique way of teaching, isn't it? Some parents who consider Soroban to be too difficult to be taught in schools hire private tutors.
Quite the contrary to popular belief, there is more to the abacus than it just being something nice to look at as a visual teaching aide. Another reason why it is used and so effective is because of its tact. Blind people use Cramner abacus' because of the special bicone beads it is made of. What makes this abacus so special, you ask? It is special for quite a few reasons. First of all, it teaches blind students how to count through hearing. Next, it doesn't just stop at teaching addition and subtraction. The Cramner abacus teaches cubic root, division, square root, and even multiplication!
MODERN ABACUS
Believe it or not, the abacus is still used by store and business owners in different parts of the world. This is especially true for places like Africa, Japan, China, and Russia. Wooded beads are usually what make up your average abacus today. However, in places like Japan, bicone beads are still used because they're considered to move more easier.
In China, they refer to an abacus as a "Suanpan." These can be used for more than just counting. Like the Cramner abacus, these also can be used for multiplication, addition, division, subtraction, and even cube and square roots in a fast amount of time.
You would think that since the abacus has been around for hundreds of centuries, it has to be outdated and useless, right? Wrong! It's hardly what you would consider old-fashioned. To prove this, a contest was held back in November 1946 in Tokyo. A man by the name of Kiyoshi Matsuazaki used a regular Japanese soroban. The other man, a US military man by the name of Nathan Wood, used a regular electric calculator. For the contest, both instruments were tested to see how fast and accurate they each would be at performing addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. Lastly, a final test would include a problem that combined all four. The winner was the soroban, beating the calculator 4 times out of 5. The only thing the electric calculator beat the abacus at was in multiplying.
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The History of Computer
Uninformed researchers of computer (computador) history would probably note the first computer in the mid 1930`s. In reality, this history dates nearly 2000 years ago with the invention of the abacus where the user programmed beads using formulated constructs.
Although many historians caution against the use of the word computer (computador) except to define 20th century computers, a broader understanding illuminates an instrument designed by a Frenchman and which functioned as a calculator and was designed for a tax collector in the 1600`s. Improvements to this calculator continued through the 19th century.
Similar work was underway in England and with the support of the government a `mechanical` calculator was invented. It was powered by steam and supported a fixed program for its use. This calculator went through many changes until an automatic calculator was invented. Following this flurry of discovery and invention, little changed until the early 1900`s when detailed mechanical and transportation work required complex mathematical calculations (especially calculus).
Two Census Bureau workers began to look for a means of accurately calculating information. They conceived the idea of a punch card which would be inserted into the computer (computador), read, and stored. The greatest advantage of these still slow moving machines was the ability to store large amounts of information with ease and accuracy.
The early 1940`s and the imminent World War, brought the military into the computer era (computador). New weapons requiring computer technology for effectiveness, were needed, designed and produced. These were large floor model machines and utilized the floor space of an average one family home (about 2,000 square feet). One independent computer (computador) was not adequate and a means was found to link computers which produced a more accurate and clear channel of information. These devices were not only cumbersome but they required rewiring and rechanneling for each program. Greater inventions were in progress. These new computers (computador) would be equipped with memory capacity and worker faster than any in existence at the time.
In 1947, the first modern programmable computers (computador) were designed. They contained RAM (Random Access Memory) and made it possible to access information in seconds. This technology continued to be tested and improved into the 1950`s when magnetic core memory and a transistor circuit element were discovered. These increased the memory capacity and functionality of the computers (computador). On the down side the cost to operate these machines was astronomical. By nearly sheer determination alone, these devices evolved into amazing machines able to work with a number of programs simultaneously while giving the impression that only one program was in use.
As recently as the 1960`s computers (computador) were more available and the price had become nearly reasonable for businesses. Their use however, was confined mostly to mathematically based operations such as billing, accounting, and payroll. One of the major purchasers of these devices was hospitals which stored date from patients, inventory, billing, treatments, and the like.
By the 1980`s smaller individual computers (computador) were being produced. Technology continued to astound the general public as the microchip came into existence permitting personal computers to be sold with accompanying program disks for downloading. A glance around most medium to large companies would reveal many desk top computers in use.
It would be impossible to track the history of computers (computador) without acknowledging Apple Computer and IBM for their leading edge and evolving technology. Radio Shack coupled with Apple Computer (computador) produced video games for the computer (a move from the arcade).
The ability for businesses and individuals to access the worldwide web gave birth to new and innovative marketing and communication with inquirers and/or clients. Today it is inconceivable that one attempt to research something on line and not find multiple references there. The momentum has only continued to mount and new upgrades are available nearly by the day.
This article is under GNU FDL license and can be distributed without any previous authorization from the author. However the author's name and all the URLs (links) mentioned in the article and biography must be kept.
About the Author
This article can also be accessed in portuguese language from the Article section of page www.polomercantil.com.br/computador-pc.php
Roberto Sedycias works as IT consultant for www.PoloMercantil.com.br
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