Comments on: A Meaningful Gift – Part II

By: Mike McKittrick

Mike McKittrick — Tue, 02 Apr 2013 20:15:12 +0000

The Lee Kai-chen ‘Improved’ Abacus is rare and hard to come by indeed. This is to let you know that the Lee abacus is available to anyone who owns an iPad. The app is called AbacusPro. The app includes two versions of the Chinese Suanpan, the Japanese Soroban, and the Lee Kai-chen ‘Improved’ abacus.

By: Mayer

Mayer — Tue, 26 Mar 2013 18:54:42 +0000

You can calculate square roots on any abacus or soroban, digit by digit, with relative ease. Write me if you need a description of the algorithm.

By: Amit

Amit — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 05:24:49 +0000

She liked it a lot! Probably one of the most successful gifts I’ve ever given.

The story that came with it was a great addition. I actually enjoyed looking for and giving it.

(Next time we meet I’ll reset your password :)

By: rom

rom — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 03:52:22 +0000

Hi, as usually i forgot my user and pass… As usual, the gift is very original and based on great ideas. So, did she like the gift?????

By: Amit

Amit — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 20:54:08 +0000

:) Thanks a lot for the reply. I actually went on a hunt for an authentic (old) abacus, but they sell all these crap ones. And the most interesting one, the Lee Kai-Chen’s abacus, which can be used to do square roots and such, isn’t available anywhere AFAIK.

There’s also the relatively famous “Feynman vs. The Abacus” ( http://www.ee.ryerson.ca/~elf/abacus/feynman.html )story from a book that I really like about Richard Feynman (a famous physicist from the 20th century.)

Anyway, I gave up on trying to find an abacus. I still follow Curta calculators on eBay though, in case I’ll get lucky and find one relatively cheap.

Thanks again.

By: Itai

Itai — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 20:38:30 +0000

Hmmmm,

When I was a child, and even (slightly) geekier than I am today, I learned to use a Japanese abacus that my father brought from the US at some point. It came with a little booklet explaining how to use it.

It’s surprisingly easy to learn, and I mastered it in a few short hours. I obviously didn’t get to this “mental” type of calculation shown in the video, as the booklet said nothing of it, and I strongly suspect that the whiz-kids who do this in the video have a very special “gift” or “knack” for it anyway – Normal people will probably not be able or indeed willing to learn this…

The booklet did have a lot of “motivational propaganda” saying that the abacus is much faster than an electronic calculator. My own timings, after a few hours of practice, indicated a very close tie. I suspect that with some more practice the abacus would have indeed won. Of course, this is just for addition and subtraction, especially with a large number of terms. The abacus is quite pathetic with any other operation (except, of course, multiplication by zero, which is the fastest).

The thing that did surprise me mentality-wise is that while you are doing the calculations you don’t have to think about the math at all. You just follow a set of easily learned, almost “robotized”, finger movements for every combination of figures.

AFAIK, there are 2 other types of abacuses in common use (the one shown in this post is the Japanese type): The Chinese type, which is similar, but slightly more elaborate, and the Russian, which is just a set of horizontal wires with 10 beads on each – very similar to the abacus toys available in the better toy shops. My grandfather used to have a Russian abacus in his office, and according to stories, actually used it regularly. AFAIU, both the Chinese and Russian types are less minimalistic and therefore less efficient.

And don’t get me started on slide-rules…