算盤（abacus）的記載，最早出現在東漢（Eastern Han Dynasty）末期（西元25-220年），由數學家徐岳所撰寫的《數術記遺》之書中。算盤是古代計算數字的工具，其功用有點類似今天的計算機。算盤的形狀為長方形，一般採用木製材質來製作（現今也用塑膠或其他的材質），裡面有一横杆把木珠分為上下兩個部份，上面的木珠每個代表數字5，下面的木珠每個代表數字1， 基本的運算方式可包含加、减、乘、除，這種計算方法我們叫做珠算。
也有人把珠算的運算法則轉變為珠心算(mental abacus)，其原理是把算盤的形象描繪在腦海中，透過珠算的運算法則，縱然没有實際形體的算盤在眼前可操作，但事實上可以在腦海中運用影像法來計算數字也就是心算。
|
|
相關連結
1. The Science Frontiers website has some interesting pages about calculating prodigies, which seems like a topic related to mental abacus.
2. This fascinating paper (actually, a book chapter) on Culture and Cognition (by Richard Nisbett and Ara Norenzayan) has, on page ten, a discussion of abacus users (pdf). If you’re ever interested in cultural differences in thought, look for the work of Richard Nisbett. He’s an expert in that field.
3. Here is a paper titled Change of Mental Representation with the Expertise of Mental Abacus (available in pdf) by Hidenari Negishi, Kazuhiro Ueda, Mitsugu Kuriyama, Masaharu Kato, Hideo Kawaguchi, and Hirokazu Atsumori.
3. Here is a Chinese language (traditional characters) website describing the history of the Chinese abacus, and mentioning Xu Yueh’s part in its history.
4. Another Chinese language article (traditional characters) about the abacus. This one says the Chinese abacus is one of the 101 most important inventions in human history.
5. This page from the Bookrags website gives a very thorough description of the history of the abacus, using descriptions from various reference sources on the Internet. Some sources claim an abacus was used in Babylon about 4,200 years ago, and many sources claim the abacus was not invented in China.
6. Finally, you can read page 32 from the Shorter Science and Civilisation in China: An Abridgement (of Joseph Needham's work by Colin A. Ronan) about the history of the abacus.
