Wow! Between you, Ben, and Norm and others I had no idea that the mere mention of "Abacus" would start a whole 'nuther thread! I'm sitting here in frozen NYC (about 19 as the 'high' overnight!!) and laughing my butt off!
I mentioned the abacus originally 'cause I was having a really bad 'technology' day. I was ready to toss the computer out my 8th floor apartment window and then calmed down, researched my issue (a mis-behaving program), took a (admittedly bundled up) walk with the dog, and came back in a much calmer state of mind. Having said that, I don't ever think I've actually seen an abacus. There were already "adding machines" when I was a kid in the '50s although they were huge and weighed many, many pounds! Anyway, just thought I'd chime in and say thanks, I learned something today about an abacus! Maybe I'll try to find one and learn how to use it and develop "mental math" - although having survived the '60s I'm not sure how much mental capacity I've actually got left! S Steve Weinstein S/V CAPTIVA 1997 Hunter 376, Hull #376 Sailing out of Oyster Bay, NY All outgoing mail protected by VIPRE A/V ----- Original Message ----- From: "Ben Okopnik" <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Tuesday, February 22, 2011 3:22 PM Subject: Re: [Liveaboard] Unnecessary Beads > On Mon, Feb 21, 2011 at 09:34:07PM -0500, [email protected] wrote: >> >> Have you ever noticed that an abacus has unnecessary beads? >> >> After the "one" counters get up to four the next "one" makes it five and >> you >> zero the five "one" beads and move a "five" bead over. The fifth "one" >> bead is >> not needed because once it is moved the "one" row is zeroed. >> >> Same with the second "five" bead. > > Actually, for the Russian and the Chinese abaci (which are the ones that > I know), that 5th bead has a very important purpose. Working the abacus > is not simply a matter of moving and counting the beads: it's a > visualization tool that allows you to build muscle memories for using it > - i.e., to "mechanize" its operation so you can use it without thinking > about the process. The _result_ of that operation is a very fast > tabulator - but the _mechanism_ by which that tabulation happens is > based in large part on the tactile distinctions in the small set of > beads on each wire as well as the ability to "snap-shoot" the results > visually. > > Please note, by the way, that abacus use is still taught in a number of > schools around the world: abacus visualization, even without having a > physical one at hand, allows you to perform mental math at many times > the normal rate when large, complex numbers are involved. > > When I was a kid, there was no other device available to us average > humans for calculating numbers (sure, the big university in Moscow had > some kind of an electronic machine, but no one else did!), and so > everyone, including accountants, used a total of two tools: mental math > and abaci (well, paper techniques too, sure - but that's more or less > standard.) No matter how complex the organization was, that was always > sufficient. > > Once you're used to it, doing math on the abacus is a lot faster and > more accurate - and in the case of a large list of numbers, dozens if > not hundreds of times faster while maintaining that accuracy - than > doing it on paper. In fact, I would put a professional abacist against > anyone with a calculator or a computer for addition and subtraction - > and possibly for multiplication and division as well. Square roots to, > say, three decimal places, a little slower. Cube root, a good bit slower > but still within a few seconds. The point is that these are all doable > on a device a couple of thousand years old - matched against the latest > achievements of science. Sure, a computer is much faster at figuring out > the arctangent of 0 / -1 to 50 decimal places... but very few people in > this world need "pi" to that level of precision (never mind that most > computers actually can't do it anyway - not with any standard tools > available to the layman, or even to most programmers. Integer math isn't > a computer's strong suit, the poor things. [grin]) > > Again, those beads are necessary because the point of an abacus is to > make operations as fast and as intuitive as possible... and we humans > don't count too well by fours. With fives, a single visual pass over a > set of rows will give you a nearly instant answer with minimal > calculation; it's not "5 + 50 + 500 + 5000 - 20 - 3"; it's more like > "all except 2 here and 3 there: 5532". It's hard to imagine how fast and > convenient that is, and how, when coupled with the tactile end of it, a > professional can calculate with one hand without even looking at it, and > so can write the result with the other hand. > > Unfortunately, this is all 35 years or so behind me, and I couldn't even > begin to do any useful work on an abacus today. My mental math skills > have also deteriorated to a tiny percentage of what they once were (and > that was at the ripe old age of 13.) Even so, I'm often shocked by > people being amazed at how quickly I can calculate certain things... to > me, that's just "natural", simple math, and something that "everyone > just knows". Except not. Which is actually pretty awful, now that I > think about it. Math, like chess, is a great tool for maintaining mental > acuity no matter how old you get, and losing it - or not having it in > the first place - is an absolutely terrible thing. > > But that may just be my outdated viewpoint. > > > Ben > -- > OKOPNIK CONSULTING > Custom Computing Solutions For Your Business > Expert-led Training | Dynamic, vital websites | Custom programming > 443-250-7895 http://okopnik.com http://twitter.com/okopnik > _______________________________________________ > Liveaboard mailing list > [email protected] > To adjust your membership settings over the web > http://liveaboardonline.com/mailman/listinfo/liveaboard > To subscribe send an email to [email protected] > > To unsubscribe send an email to [email protected] > The archives are at http://www.liveaboardonline.com/pipermail/liveaboard/ > > To search the archives > http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected] > > The Mailman Users Guide can be found here > http://www.gnu.org/software/mailman/mailman-member/index.html _______________________________________________ Liveaboard mailing list [email protected] To adjust your membership settings over the web http://liveaboardonline.com/mailman/listinfo/liveaboard To subscribe send an email to [email protected] To unsubscribe send an email to [email protected] The archives are at http://www.liveaboardonline.com/pipermail/liveaboard/ To search the archives http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected] The Mailman Users Guide can be found here http://www.gnu.org/software/mailman/mailman-member/index.html
