BTN: What is an abacus?

It might look like a game or a kids' toy but those sliding beads actually have the power to solve some pretty complex maths equations.

This is a really simple abacus. And you can see there are columns with beads in each of them. Now if I want to write a number like one hundred and twenty three, I just move beads in each column.

So three here, two here, and one here. Makes one hundred and twenty three! Now let's just say I want to write a different number like forty-six, I do the same thing. Two, four, six in this column and four in this column makes forty six! Now what about if you want to add those two numbers together? Let's start with123 and now let's add on our 46. You push six up here and forty here and that gives us one hundred and sixty-nine! Perfect!

Many historians say the very first abacuses appeared thousands of years ago! They were used by traders and merchants across many of the great ancient cultures, including Mesopotamia, Egypt, Persia, China, Greece and Rome. Since then the abacus has evolved and changed a lot. And now one of the most popular designs is this Japanese one.

Today abacuses are still used in many parts of the world, including Russia, China, and Africa. Nowadays calculators have mostly taken over but many still learn how to use abacuses to help train their brains.