Tool to calculate automatically with the abacus. Soroban is an evolution of Chinese abacus developed in Japan. It contains 1 quinary and 4 unary to count between 0 and 9.
Soroban - dCode
Tag(s) : Numeral System
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Soroban
Soroban Converter
Answers to Questions (FAQ)
What is a Soroban? (Definition)
How to use a Soroban?
The soroban stands horizontally, so that the quinary is at the top and the unaries at the bottom.
In its initial position, the balls are pushed outwards and all the columns show O-|-OOOO.
The count in base 10 is done as an addition: the 1 and the 5 are added for each column representing the units, then the tens, then the hundreds, etc. (from left to right)
Example: O-|O-OOO
O-|OO-OO gives number 12
| 0 | O-|-OOOO |
| 1 | O-|O-OOO |
| 2 | O-|OO-OO |
| 3 | O-|OOO-O |
| 4 | O-|OOOO- |
| 5 | -O|-OOOO |
| 6 | -O|O-OOO |
| 7 | -O|OO-OO |
| 8 | -O|OOO-O |
| 9 | -O|OOOO- |
Who uses Soroban?
Surprisingly there are still many users of Soroban in Japan. Until recently, a Soroban competence test (with different levels of increasing difficulty) was required to work in some companies or departments.
The Chinese have also adopted its use, but the use in China is rarer.
Source code
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