Hello Everybody,

A very interesting conversation was overheard in not so distant
land -

MvdV>To me it is an archaic device that was used before they had pen
MvdV>and paper.

To a lot of people all, over the world, it's still the preferred
way to do everyday calculations -- such as in market places. It's
also been demonstrated over and over again, that it's faster and
less prone to mistakes, than a modern calculator. Especially today,
when most "calculators" are touch screen apps...

There is nothing "archaic" about an abacus. Russians know this.
At least those who grew up in the former Soviet Union, having been
taught in school how to use the Russian abacus, known as schoty.
These classes were taught until the 1990s, when Gorbachev called
it quits and retired from the world stage.

In any event, a fully trained abacus operator is much faster and
more accurate than anybody trying to use pen and paper, or even
a scientific calculator.

Those who do not believe me need only go to Chinatown and visit
a grocery store and watch how fast those abacus operators add up
the total for your groceries.

The Chinese abacus (suanpan) has 2 beads in the upper deck and 5
bead in the bottom deck. Very easy to use, once properly trained.

The Japanese abacus (soroban) has 1 bead in the upper deck and 4
beads in the bottom deck. Also very easy to use, once properly
trained. The Korean abacus is similar to the Japanese abacus, and
works on the same principle. No re-training needed.

The Russian abacus (schoty) has ten beads, all on the same deck.
Nobody knows how to use that abacus, except those trained in the
former Soviet Union. This is Vladimir Putin's favorite calculator.

Still, there are some folks who do not want to believe that those
who use an abacus can be faster and more accurate than those who
use a scientific calculator. But this view has been demonstrably
proven to be false, as a contest was held between a well-known
physicist and a Japanese abacus expert, as noted by Wikipedia -

-=-=-

Physicist Richard Feynman was noted for facility in mathematical
calculations. He wrote about an encounter in Brazil with a Japanese
abacus expert, who challenged him to speed contests between Feynman's
pen and paper, and the abacus. The abacus was much faster for addition, somewhat faster for multiplication, but Feynman was faster at division.
When the abacus was used for a really difficult challenge, i.e. cube
roots, Feynman won easily. However, the number chosen at random was
close to a number Feynman happened to know was an exact cube, allowing
him to use approximate methods.[51]

-=-=-

Michiel van der Vlist has mentioned his favorite calculator as
being "pen and paper". So I have taken out my favorite calculator -
a Chinese calculator. And hereby challenge Michiel van der Vlist
to a duel.

En garde!

--Lee

--
Make 7-Up Yours

--- MesNews/1.08.05.00-gb
* Origin: news://eljaco.se (2:203/2)