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  1. #11

    Default Re: Roman Computers?

    Quote Originally Posted by Tellos Athenaios
    IIRC the abacus as we know it was a Chinese thing?

    Anywho: it would not really have worked very well with the Roman/Latin numeral system; theirs' is one of the worst imaginable. Mostly because they rely on elementary math to denote elements of the outcome of elementary math.
    The abacus was and is used in many cultures, but was invented before the Chinese. The Chinese and Japanese each developed their special versions, which are still known today. In the west, the abacus eventually fell more or less out of use, but is still used in schools/pre-schools. Later, the slide rule was developed, which is a better mechanical calculator than the abacus, but without the memory. (I guess that means higher clock frequency but lower RAM? )

    Apparently, the Romans didn't like using their numerals for calculations, just for representing results.
    Last edited by Sakkura; 12-27-2007 at 19:53.
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