Difference between revisions of "Abacus"

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(Between “Obvious” and “Arbitrary”: What is a biased on the Abacus?)
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And also in a certain sense, most Asian Culture which is oriented on Abacus did not much care about left-handed men. What if some little child has left-handed, it is considered as one of unusual behaviors to fix. In this sense, it is a kind of design convention resulting from the prevalent tendencies of the historical situation. In common belief in technology, we easily accept technology is a significant force in society. “Referred to as “technological determinism”, this belief affirms that changes in technology exert a greater influence on societies and their processes than any other force.” (Smith, 1994:2) In other words, some sort of “technological determinism” alters the way of thinking within human beings. That paradigm affects invention of abacus which is biased on right-handed men.  
 
And also in a certain sense, most Asian Culture which is oriented on Abacus did not much care about left-handed men. What if some little child has left-handed, it is considered as one of unusual behaviors to fix. In this sense, it is a kind of design convention resulting from the prevalent tendencies of the historical situation. In common belief in technology, we easily accept technology is a significant force in society. “Referred to as “technological determinism”, this belief affirms that changes in technology exert a greater influence on societies and their processes than any other force.” (Smith, 1994:2) In other words, some sort of “technological determinism” alters the way of thinking within human beings. That paradigm affects invention of abacus which is biased on right-handed men.  
  
 
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=== The Pedagogical action: The “Arbitrary” Effect ===
 
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Revision as of 04:24, 29 November 2010

A Brief Historical Sketch on the Abacus

“An Ukiyoe woodblock print of the Edo Period (1603-1867) shows a youth calculating on a soroban” From “The Abacus Today”, Mathematics in School, 4(5), 1975:19”

As a historical point of view, human being has been evolved for some reasons. In these sense, all materials in our daily life are easily adapted by those who are good at applying to brand new technologies. In mathematics, there is no exception to follow undeniable rules. Before accepting these rules, we might have been able to calculate simple things - which are included adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing in a certain level - in our head. If not, we are still working on a certain level of simple calculation. Even though we could easily have done it in our own head, we certainly could not have done it as right way. For some reason, we tried to get a right answer with doing less working in progress.

“Nothing could be further from the truth. The abacus is at once one of the oldest, most enduring, and efficient products of the human mind. The Abacus has served mankind well, aiding him in commerce and invention. It is likely that the abacus was developed independently at different times in different civilizations; The Peruvian Indians, for instance, used a form of abacus for rapid calculation even before the arrival of the white man. The results of computation were recorded by knots tied in a cord.” (Haga, 1964:398) According to the Mathematical Association, we could get a brief historical archive on Abacus as below. “The principles of Abacus arithmetic were first developed in the Middle East over 5000 years ago by the Sumerian civilization. This civilization was probably the first to develop the subject of mathematics and their sexagesimal number system which is based on 60 is still with us in the way that we measure angles and time” (The Mathematical Association, 1981:2-3)

“A collection of various types of abacus is displayed at the Museum of Monetary History in the Fuji Bank’s head office in Tokyo” From “The Abacus Today”, Mathematics in School, 4(5), 1975:19
Through this practice, we could simply get a right answer through our own cognitive system. “In its earliest form the Abacus was probably a sand table with pebbles being used as counters. From this form it evolved to its modern design with beads moving on rods. This version dates from the Greek and Roman civilizations. The Abacus in its various forms continued to be used in Western Europe until the Middle Ages.” (The Mathematical Association, 1981:2-3)
“A clerk in the Hongkong and Shanghai Bank, From “The Abacus Today”, Mathematics in School, 4(5), 1975:19
In this situation, we may also need to get a sort of genius tools to aid our insufficient analytical system. In this sense, these days we take it for granted that we can easily add, subtract, multiply and divide numbers. It was pretty hard to see people those who use the Abacus for some reason. Especially, we could not figure out any institution to become well-trained technicians those who have a spectacular performance given by whom. It seems like the most heyday on Abacus is around 1960~90 just right before being computerized. Why has the abacus being popular at that time? We are already getting sick of the answer of this: the efficiency in some level.

Even if the spread of abacus focuses upon Asian Cultures, it is totally not. According to Haga(1964:398) “At one time the abacus was used in American schools to teach addition and subtraction. It has much to recommend it; it is pretty much cheap, fast, efficient, and versatile.” Furthermore, “one school in California, the abacus was introduced in all second and third grade classes as part of a project to improve speed and accuracy in the handling of numbers.” (Haga, 1964:398)

As we could easily assume, technologies do not dwell on the Abacus to improve speed and accuracy in handling of numbers. It was just one of the tons of advanced calculations in analytical system.

How it works

Tell me about Abacus: How to use it?

It consists with seven beads on each row. “Two of the beads are above the bar (upper beads) and five are below the bar (lower beads). The upper beads are worth “5” and the lower beads are worth “1”. Each row represents a decimal place. The right-hand row shows 1s (1 to 9) the second row 10s (10 to 90) and so on. To show a number beads are placed against the bar. “(Maxwell, 1981:3) Unlikely the Chinese Abacus, “the Japanese Abacus has only 1 upper and 4 lowers beads.” (Maxwell, 1981:3)

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It is because these two beads which are located in the most top and bottom is not needed at all in terms of double meaning. Even if the abacus needs to practice to calculate numbers, it is carried out a series of calculation in terms of “addition and subtraction, Simple and long multiplication, and simple and long division, and finding square and cube roots.” (Maxwell, 1981:3) I am not going to show how to calculate every single calculation, but it is obvious to need to a sort of train for that. If you want to get a sense of calculations on the abacus see the article.

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Remediation

Technically Speaking on the Abacus

In an information era, we do not need to make a note and cultivate rules in a certain level, since we could get an aid from advanced technologies to focus upon an “Efficiency and Accuracy”. For the first time, it was such an evolutionary effect on abacus. If we are getting used to how to encode each number on abacus, we could easily get the result as soon as we could. After then, it is pretty much limited to calculate every single numbers. As we already recognized, it is kind of being part of unlimited things: calculate numbers. Even if the abacus has been used such an efficient calculator, it is not good enough to use it until today.

There is no reason if you are working on professional specialists related in numbers; you do not need to purchase a calculator at least.
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calculator on smartphones
Most mobile phone companies include such a great functions on their phone needless to say on smart phone users. If you are smart phone user, you could get tons of versions of calculator on application store. (See attached images on one of smart phones)

Digital vs. Analog: To Cybernerd

According to Susan Buckmorss “Benjamin took seriously the debris of mass culture as the source of philosophical truth”(5). “For Benjamin the various remains of nineteenth century culture –buildings, technologies and commodities, but also illustrations and literary texts – served as inscriptions that could lead us to understand in ways in which a culture perceived itself and conceptualized the “Deeper” ideological layers of its construction. As Tom Gunning puts it, “If Benjamin’s method is fully understood, technology can reveal the dream world of society as much as its pragmatic rationalization.” (Huhtamo, 1997:221)

As the formal researches on history, it does not dwell on history itself anymore. “In this sense, history belongs to the present as much as it belongs to the past. It cannot claim an objective status it can only become conscious of its ambiguous role as a mediator and a “meaning processor” operating between the present and the past. “(Huhtamo, 1997:221)

Historical "Arbitrary"

Between “Obvious” and “Arbitrary”: What is a biased on the Abacus?

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Sometimes we have been gone through unusual experiences when we need to being working on “the otherness” for some reason. In this sense, we are not deeply aware of why the Western writing runs not right to left but left to right just unlikely Islamic writing styles. We simply take for granted it as our way of living and just apprehend it as “the otherness: which is based upon a totally heterogeneous cultural system.” As we already recognized the former section; “how to use it, there is a certain rule which is absolutely biased upon right-handed men. Figure 2 below let us know the number 6,427.

Especially, it is obviously good at right-handed men. (See how to multiply on abacus as below)

“…to multiply one need to know ones multiplication tables and how to add on the Abacus. Simple multiplication is fairly straightforward. One puts the multiplier on the left-hand row to remind one what it is and puts the multiplicand on the right-hand side of the Abacus, leaving the right-hand row clear. Then multiply the right-hand digit of the multiplicand.Remove this digit and place the product on the right-hand row that you have left clear.Multiply the next digit of the multiplicand.”(Maxwell,1981:4)

And also in a certain sense, most Asian Culture which is oriented on Abacus did not much care about left-handed men. What if some little child has left-handed, it is considered as one of unusual behaviors to fix. In this sense, it is a kind of design convention resulting from the prevalent tendencies of the historical situation. In common belief in technology, we easily accept technology is a significant force in society. “Referred to as “technological determinism”, this belief affirms that changes in technology exert a greater influence on societies and their processes than any other force.” (Smith, 1994:2) In other words, some sort of “technological determinism” alters the way of thinking within human beings. That paradigm affects invention of abacus which is biased on right-handed men.

The Pedagogical action: The “Arbitrary” Effect