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Chinese abacus

Traditional Chinese says that the abacus, suan pan, was inspired by bunters collecting trophies from animals they killed.People began to string wooden beads on wooden sticks to count. This was the first abacus.

Invented more than 2,000 years ago, suan pan are the oldest calculators still used today.Most Chinese learn how to use suan pan when they were young.

The structure of suan pan is quite simple: It is composed by B, which represent numbers, and wooden sticks, which represent decimals.Suan pan can be used to accomplish complicated calculations quickly with simple formulas and rules.Suan pan are the living fossils of Chinese mathematical discovery.