Help your fellow builder by leaving your feedback based on these three criteria:
- Originality: How original is this - never seen before?
- Building Techniques: How much skill do you think the creator of this MOC has, in terms of building technique?
- Details: Express how much you like the details of the build.
Your feedback is only shown to the creator as well as yourself. It is not available for other users to see. The creator won't see your user name.
What may appear to be a primitive device is capable of more than just simple addition and subtraction. In fact, an abacus can be used to perform multiplication, division, and even square and cube roots. It’s amazing to think that this mathematical invention from over 4,500 years ago is still in use today as a learning tool in many schools around the world.
A few fun facts:
- Sight-impaired people often learn math using abacuses and can complete math problems at the same speed as sighted individuals using pen and paper.
- Physicist Richard Feynman once challenged a Japanese abacist to a speed contest. Feynman dominated at division and roots using pen and paper, but the abacus was faster at addition and multiplication.
- AMC is abacus mental calculation (an abacus approach to mental math). Those using AMC are able to calculate large numbers through addition and multiplication faster than those using other methods.
The Colorful Western Abacus is designed using base ten. Each row represents an incremental power of ten (i.e. 1’s, 10’s, 100’s, 1000’s, and so on). In total, the Lego Abacus can represent numbers up to 9,999,999.
The display pictures have the beads set with the first 10 digits of Pi. Technically this is not how the decimal would actually be displayed, but it helps illustrate how the abacus beads can move in a fun way.
This set is 206 pieces. I originally designed this with actual bricks and have now recreated it with Studio. The base and frame are sturdy, and the balls can slide along the axles to represent different numbers and equations. With the low piece count, this would fall in a realistic price range compared to a non-Lego abacus, making it a great alternative to the real thing where it can be built with kids just learning math and then used as a teaching tool as well.
By
Natijn
Help your fellow builder by leaving your feedback based on these three criteria:
- Originality: How original is this - never seen before?
- Building Techniques: How much skill do you think the creator of this MOC has, in terms of building technique?
- Details: Express how much you like the details of the build.
Your feedback is only shown to the creator as well as yourself. It is not available for other users to see. The creator won't see your user name.