Western Abacus

In honor of STEM, the Western Abacus is set to the first 10 digits of Pi.

It’s amazing to think this invention from over 4,500 years ago is still used to teach early math in schools. It looks like a simple tool, but the abacus can perform complex calculations including multiplication, division and square and cube roots.

Sight-impaired people often learn math using abacuses and can solve equations at the same speed as sighted people using pen and paper.

Physicist Richard Feynman 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.

This 226 piece set is designed using base ten (1's, 10's, 100's, and so on). In total, this design can show numbers up to 9,999,999,999.