How to use your abacus Reading a number on the abacus. The abacus works on the place value system. Reading it is almost like reading a written numeral. The five beads below the bar each have a value of 1. The two beads above the bar each have a value of 5

First appearing around 1200 A.D. in China, the modern abacus evolved from the counting boards that dated back to Babylonian civilization. Featuring rods of vertical beads split across two decks, the abacus serves as a tool that still finds use in many Asi

To use an abacus to add, first orient it by pushing 1 or 2 beads to the top of each row and 4 beads to the bottom of each row, which will set it back to zero. After you’ve oriented it, assign each a column a place value.