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The Chinese (算盘) - The number represented on this is 6,302,715,408

Devices have aided computation for thousands of years, starting with basic tally sticks and progressing to more advanced tools like the abacus. The ancient Greeks created early analog computers like the Antikythera mechanism in 100 BC, which was an astronomical calculator more advanced than any device for another thousand years. Throughout history, many mechanical aids for calculation and measurement were developed, especially for astronomy and navigation, including the planisphere, astrolabe, and geared calendar computers.

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36 views1 page

The Chinese (算盘) - The number represented on this is 6,302,715,408

Devices have aided computation for thousands of years, starting with basic tally sticks and progressing to more advanced tools like the abacus. The ancient Greeks created early analog computers like the Antikythera mechanism in 100 BC, which was an astronomical calculator more advanced than any device for another thousand years. Throughout history, many mechanical aids for calculation and measurement were developed, especially for astronomy and navigation, including the planisphere, astrolabe, and geared calendar computers.

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muhammadismail
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Devices have been used to aid computation for thousands of years, mostly using one-to-one

correspondence with fingers. The earliest counting device was probably a form of tally stick. Later
record keeping aids throughout the Fertile Crescent included calculi (clay spheres, cones, etc.)
which represented counts of items, probably livestock or grains, sealed in hollow unbaked clay
containers.[4][5] The use of counting rods is one example.

The Chinese suanpan (算盘). The number represented on this abacus is 6,302,715,408.

The abacus was initially used for arithmetic tasks. The Roman abacus was developed from devices
used in Babylonia as early as 2400 BC. Since then, many other forms of reckoning boards or tables
have been invented. In a medieval European counting house, a checkered cloth would be placed on
a table, and markers moved around on it according to certain rules, as an aid to calculating sums of
money.[6]

The Antikythera mechanism, dating back to ancient Greece circa 150–100 BC, is an early analog


computing device.

The Antikythera mechanism is believed to be the earliest mechanical analog computer, according


to Derek J. de Solla Price.[7] It was designed to calculate astronomical positions. It was discovered in
1901 in the Antikythera wreck off the Greek island of Antikythera, between Kythera and Crete, and
has been dated to c. 100 BC. Devices of a level of complexity comparable to that of the Antikythera
mechanism would not reappear until a thousand years later.
Many mechanical aids to calculation and measurement were constructed for astronomical and
navigation use. The planisphere was a star chart invented by Abū Rayhān al-Bīrūnī in the early 11th
century.[8] The astrolabe was invented in the Hellenistic world in either the 1st or 2nd centuries BC
and is often attributed to Hipparchus. A combination of the planisphere and dioptra, the astrolabe
was effectively an analog computer capable of working out several different kinds of problems
in spherical astronomy. An astrolabe incorporating a mechanical calendar computer[9][10] and gear-
wheels was invented by Abi Bakr of Isfahan, Persia in 1235.[11] Abū Rayhān al-Bīrūnī invented the
first mechanical geared lunisolar calendar astrolabe,[12] an early fixed-wired knowledge
processing machine[13] with a gear train and gear-wheels,[14] c. 1000 AD.

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