Can an Abacus Beat a Calculator?
In short: In 1946 a soroban beat an electric calculator in four of five rounds in Tokyo; the evidence shows how the abacus works, why its origins are hard to pin down, and what researchers have learned about calculating on imagined beads.
A 1:28 short film in the series “From Fingers to Qubits”, narrated by intellect_voice_01.
Sources used in this film: Computer History Museum (CHM Revolution online exhibition), “The Versatile, Venerable Abacus - CHM Revolution”; WIRED (Condé Nast), “Nov 12, 1946: The Abacus Proves Its Might”; Child Development (Barner et al., 2015), hosted by Stanford Language and Cognition Lab, “Blinded_Revision_Child_Development_August7”; Journal of Experimental Psychology: General (American Psychological Association), 2011; paper by Michael C. Frank (Stanford University) and David Barner (UC San Diego), hosted by the Stanford Languag…, “FB-jepg2011.pdf”; Frontiers in Psychology (article by Tanaka et al., 2012; PDF hosted by the National Institute for Physiological Sciences, Japan), “Abacus in the brain: a longitudinal functional MRI study of a skilled abacus user with a right hemispheric lesion”; PLOS (PLOS ONE), peer-reviewed open-access article by Ku, Hong, Zhou, Bodner and Zhou, published 4 May 2012, “Sequential Neural Processes in Abacus Mental Addition: An EEG and fMRI Case Study”.
Sources used in this film
- Computer History Museum (CHM Revolution online exhibition) — The Versatile, Venerable Abacus - CHM Revolution · View →
- WIRED (Condé Nast) — Nov 12, 1946: The Abacus Proves Its Might · View →
- Child Development (Barner et al., 2015), hosted by Stanford Language and Cognition Lab — Blinded_Revision_Child_Development_August7 · View →
- Journal of Experimental Psychology: General (American Psychological Association), 2011; paper by Michael C. Frank (Stanford University) and David Barner (UC San Diego), hosted by the Stanford Languag… — FB-jepg2011.pdf · View →
- Frontiers in Psychology (article by Tanaka et al., 2012; PDF hosted by the National Institute for Physiological Sciences, Japan) — Abacus in the brain: a longitudinal functional MRI study of a skilled abacus user with a right hemispheric lesion · View →
- PLOS (PLOS ONE), peer-reviewed open-access article by Ku, Hong, Zhou, Bodner and Zhou, published 4 May 2012 — Sequential Neural Processes in Abacus Mental Addition: An EEG and fMRI Case Study · View →
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Sources
- Summary by Intellect · source: Computer History Museum (CHM Revolution online exhibition): The Versatile, Venerable Abacus - CHM Revolution
- Also: WIRED (Condé Nast): Nov 12, 1946: The Abacus Proves Its Might
- Also: Child Development (Barner et al., 2015), hosted by Stanford Language and Cognition Lab: Blinded_Revision_Child_Development_August7
- Also: Journal of Experimental Psychology: General (American Psychological Association), 2011; paper by Michael C. Frank (Stanf: FB-jepg2011.pdf
- Also: Frontiers in Psychology (article by Tanaka et al., 2012; PDF hosted by the National Institute for Physiological Sciences: Abacus in the brain: a longitudinal functional MRI study of a skilled abacus user with a right hemispheric lesion
- Also: PLOS (PLOS ONE), peer-reviewed open-access article by Ku, Hong, Zhou, Bodner and Zhou, published 4 May 2012: Sequential Neural Processes in Abacus Mental Addition: An EEG and fMRI Case Study
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