Film Friday: The amazing abacus

So, I’ve seen an abacus (or the plural, abaci), but until this video, I’d never seen one in action.

Now, I’m not a big fan of speed in math, but I have to admit this is pretty darned cool — especially when the kids imagine the abacus to solve problems without it.

But how does an abacus work?

There’s a great (though complex) explanation here.  But here’s the really cool thing: to use an abacus, you have to have a really strong, knee-jerk sense of numeracy.  So, it’s not so much a shortcut as a demonstration of a great understanding of math basics.