ENGLISH ESSAY CLASS 8
Abacus - Japanese Soroban
The abacus is an ancient calculating tool that
was invented for counting large numbers. Soroban
is the Japanese abacus that is believed to have
been developed in the 17th century. It is
derived from suanpan, which is the Chinese
abacus.
Soroban is quite similar in appearance to
suanpan. Unlike the suanpan, soroban has only
one row. Also, it has two rows of beads in the
upper deck. Further, in the lower deck it has
only four rows of beads instead of five. The
beads equal the same amount as in suanpan, but
with one less bead. Moreover, there is no
carrying of numbers in soroban.
Japanese students first learn suanpan during
their teens. Sometimes they also attend special
abacus schools. The simplicity and the
appearance of soroban are quite similar to a
toy. As a result the children never feel bored
while doing calculations on it.
The benefits of Japanese abacus on the students
are manifold. With every problem the students
solve on Soroban, they exercise their brain. As
a result they gradually become experts in
recalling mathematical rules, procedures,
interim sums and products, finger movements and
also in locating where they are in the solution
process. It also enhances their concentration,
attention and mental focus. Soroban-based mental
calculations are a powerful mental workout and
generate a flurry of mental activity among the
students. This equips them to confidently
perform challenging mental calculations.
Soroban has brain-boosting cognitive effects. It
is for this reason it is used for the treatment
of mental-decline, dementia and alzheimer's
disease in the elderly people.
A skilled person can perform calculations much
faster with a Japanese abacus than someone with
an electronic calculator. For instance, in one
competition that was held in 1946 between
soroban and modern electromechanical calculator,
soroban proved to be faster than the
electromechanical calculator in four out of five
occasions. It was only beaten by the
electromechanical calculator in the
multiplication problems.
From the above discussions we can now definitely
conclude that Japanese abacus is the ultimate
calculating tool for the children.
Related Essay
See also: Abacus in
class 7 English essays section
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