Long, long before desktops, laptops, PDAs, calculators, and slide rules, there was the abacus. This week, we visit a Web site where the abacus still counts.

Pocket calculators, slide rules...what's next?

I joked last week in this space that I was so old that I used an abacus before I ever heard of a slide rule. Actually, I never used an abacus, but I was aware of abaci long before I was aware of slide rules. Back in Hopeville Grammar School, my first grade teacher, Miss Sullivan, used an abacus to demonstrate the basics of arithmetic. With 32 baby boomers in the class, there was not much hands-on with the abacus, but some of us got the idea of how it worked and a good grounding in arithmetic as well.

Forty-something years later, I thought it was time to get familiar with the abacus again, so I steered my browser over to Google and found The Abacus Web site, which informed me that "the standard abacus can be used to perform addition, subtraction, division, and multiplication; the abacus can also be used to extract square-roots and cubic roots." Square roots and cubic roots! I had no idea.

Learn how to do arithmetic at The Abacus Web site.

The Abacus is an excellent Web site where you will learn everything you want to know about "the art of calculating with beads." Luis Fernandes of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Ryerson University in Toronto is the man behind the Web site. In addition to photographs of his abacus collection, Mr. Fernandes' Web site includes a brief history of the abacus, tutorials on how to perform addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, square roots, and cube roots using the beads of the abacus. There is also an interactive Java-driven abacus that you can use on line.

By the way, the site is viewable in Spanish, French, German, and Portuguese in addition to English. In 2003, Scientific American honored the site with a Sci/Tech Web Award, so you know this Web site is well worth the browse.

Until next time, keep on surfin'

Editor's note: Stan Horzepa, WA1LOU, is so old that he used an abacus before he ever heard of a slide rule. To discuss abaci, slide rules, radios, and any other matters that matter, send e-mails to Stan at wa1lou@arrl.net.

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