It's What Really Counts

Day 114: I keep promising myself to sit down and devote some serious brain power to learning how to use this simple device, but every time I've tried, I've become bogged when it came to adding by means of subtraction. I think I may have finally found some instructions I'll be able to follow without tearing my hair out by the roots. There are several different styles of abacus. This happens to be a Japanese soroban. Note that there are four beads in the lower section and only one bead in the upper part. This is quite different from the Chinese style which has five beads in the lower section and two in the upper, and consequently, the method of calculation is going to be different for each type. There are other styles as well, each with its own particular system. I don't aspire to doing complex calculations, either. I'd just like to be able to multiply 23 x 72 without having to use something with a battery in it. Here it must be noted for posterity that I once caught my lazy husband using a pocket calculator to determine the answer to 9 x 6. I'm not quite that far gone!