The abacus is the ancestor of the calculator and the computer. It is of Babylonian origin dating from around 3000 BC.
In its original form the abacus was simply a slab of wood covered with in fine sand on which figures were written with a stylus.
Later the abacus took the form of a bead frame. Nowadays, the bead frame is still used in India, China and Japan.
An abacus performs four mathematical operations: addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.
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