Introduction to Soroban
The soroban is the Japanese abacus. It is used for addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. It is also used with decimal numbers.
Learning to calculate with the soroban has recently become the favourite subject in private mental calculation classes. There are calls to integrate it into the official mathematics curriculum.
How do you work with the soroban?
First of all the soroban allows to represent numbers. The representation of numbers on the soroban as well as the reading of the represented number will be treated in the 1st chapter. As an example, the following soroban represents the number 62:
The following chapters will deal with the operations of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. Depending on the operation, we successively add intermediate calculation values to the abacus. We then read the value represented as the result of the operation.
We will then see the operations on decimal numbers using the soroban.
Online exercises - Virtual Soroban
As you progress through the course, you will find exercises to do online on a Virtual Soroban system.
My advice is to do as many exercises as possible, because if you want to learn how to work with Soroban, then it is not enough to read the course, but to do a lot of exercises so that you can perform the operations fluently.
Working with our Virtual Soroban system has the following advantages:
1 - No need to always have a Soroban with you to be able to practice. Just use your tablet or smartphone.
2 - The system automatically checks your answer, gives you indications to correct an error and even gives a detailed path of the steps to follow to solve an operation.
3 - You can also work with a real soroban. Use the "Solution" button to get the result, compare it with your answer and move on to the next exercise.
You can find other sections of Mental Calculation by following this link: Mental Calculation