The discovery of numbers, which is considered as the greatest achievement of mankind led to the development of all kinds of calculating devices. Today we can’t imagine a work without numbers. It took thousand of years to get the present system of numbers, its development passed through several stages.
The Stone Age man used pebbles for counting people or animals. Stone was replaced by sticks on a rope. All these computing techniques required some physical effort from man. A lot of work was required for large calculations and the process was very slow. Later these scratches and symbols were replaced by the present number system, Number system found its uses in astronomy building temples & churches and calculating areas. The discovery of zero by Indian mathematicians laid
the foundation stone for numeric system.
THE ABACUS:
The earliest and the simplest device that was used for Abacus was first developed in China and
later its use spread to all parts of the world. Even today, it is still used in many countries like Soviet Union, Japan, China and other countries in Far East. It was the first device to introduce
the concept of data-storage. ABACUS is a clay board with number of beads that are placed on rods (or) wires. The beads are moved from one side to another for counting.
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| Abacus Device |
PASCAL’S ADDING MACHINE: (Date of Birth: 19 June 1623)
The first mechanical adding machine was invented by Blasie Pascal called Pascaline, which used