Traditional Chinese says that the abacus, suan pan, was inspired by bunters collecting trophies from animals they killed.
中国的传统说法是,算盘的灵感来自于猎人。从他们杀死的动物身上收集战利品 。
People began to string wooden beads on wooden sticks to count.
人们开始在木棍上串木珠来计数。
This was the first abacus.
这是第 一个算盘。
Invented more than 2,000 years ago, suan pan are the oldest calculators still used today.
算盘发明于 2000 多年前,是至今仍在使用的最古老的计算器。
Most Chinese learn how to use suan pan when they were young.
大多数中国人在很小的时候就学会了算盘。
The structure of suan pan is quite simple: It is composed by B, which represent numbers, and wooden sticks, which represent decimals.
算盘的结构很简单:由代表数字的B 和代表小数的木棍组成。
Suan pan can be used to accomplish complicated calculations quickly with simple formulas and rules.
算盘可以用简单的公式或规则快速完成复杂的计算。
Suan pan are the living fossils of Chinese mathematical discovery.
算盘是中国数 学发现的活化石。