suanpan

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
Jump to navigation Jump to search
See also: suànpán

English

[edit]

Alternative forms

[edit]

Etymology

[edit]

From Mandarin 算盤算盘 (suànpán).

Noun

[edit]
English Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia

suanpan (plural suanpans)

  1. A Chinese abacus with two beads on each rod in the upper deck and five beads on each rod in the bottom deck.
    • 2014, Yoshihide Igarashi, Tom Altman, Mariko Funada, Barbara Kamiyama, Computing: A Historical and Technical Perspective[1], page 64:
      The number of rods in the traditional suanpan is usually odd, and never less than nine.
    • 2016, Volker R. Remmert, Martina R. Schneider, Henrik Kragh Sørensen, editors, Historiography of Mathematics in the 19th and 20th Centuries[2], page 19:
      Humboldt defended the idea that the Chinese suanpan (our abacus) might be at the origin of our number system.