How does the abacus work? Is it still used today?
A search on “abacus” turned up a definition from the Britannica Concise, an encyclopedia easily accessible on Yahoo! Reference. The abacus is a handheld calculating aid that’s been around for thousands of years. By the 18th century, written arithmetic based on Arabic numerals replaced the abacus in Europe as the merchant’s counting tool of choice, but the ancient tool is still widely used in China, Japan, and the Middle East We also discovered The Abacus, a consummate web resource on “The Art of Calculating With Beads.” Created in 1995 by Luis Fernandes, who also created an award-winning Java abacus, the site features detailed instructions for learning abacus addition,
