What is an abacus? The history of abacus calculating device.

The first significant achievement in the field of arithmetic was made in China, where the local people invented the abacus five thousand years ago.

Nowadays this calculating tool hasn’t lost its fame and is still considered an achievement of utmost importance in both Chinese and World culture.

In Japan the first sample of abacus came out in the 16-th century and it was imported from China. Chinese people worked hard for 400 years in order to develop and improve the calculation device. As a result Abacus appears and is nowadays sold worldwide.

Abacus has its supporters in countries like the USA, Korea and other South Asian countries, and now his popularity has grown in Europe. Despite the numerous technical achievements and technological breakthroughs we have in mathematics today, the invention of the abacus is accepted to be a milestone (a turning point) of mathematical and technical science.

When calculating with abacus both hands are used. Having mastered this technique children will then move on to visualization of the Abacus in their mind and carry out calculations mentally.

Lots of studies prove that children who solve mathematical problems with abacus get simultaneously visual, auditory and muscle signals, resulting in their quicker thinking in comparison with the beginning of the studies. Consequently synaptic transmissions and links in the child’s brain are formed.

Actions involving both hands simultaneously affect the development both half of the brain at the same extent. Right hand movements corresponds to the left brain half developing the logical and analytical thinking. Left hand movements expand the creative thinking and imagination which are connected to the right brain half. Благодарение на едновременната работа на двете ръце двете полукълба на мозъка actively exchange signals , thus developing both halves of the brain.