GB2379065A

GB2379065A - Abacus with numbers in written format

Info

Publication number: GB2379065A
Application number: GB0119647A
Authority: GB
Inventors: John Dixon Brearey Nicholson
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 2001-08-11
Filing date: 2001-08-11
Publication date: 2003-02-26
Also published as: GB0119647D0

Abstract

An abacus includes movable elements on which numbers are displayed in written format. The numbers may be written in any language, and the abacus may have an electronic or virtual format. The abacus is intended to enhance mathematics and reading abilities.

Description

ABACUS ONE NICHOLSON'S COUNTER I, John Dixon Brearey Nicholson a citizen of the United Kingdom of Rose Cottage, The Green, Bishop Burton, East Yorks, HU17 8QF, do hereby declare, that the invention for which I pray that a patent maybe granted to me, and the method by which it is to be performed, to be particularly described in and by the following statement :- This invention relates to an abacus and more particularly to an educational device for the teaching and understanding of written in words, numbers however the instrument provides that written in words numbers. It relates to an abacus counting frame however format is used to display numbers including Russian counting frame, Japanese sorabon or Chinese abacus. The object of my invention/concept is to provide an easily understood mathematical tool for children or adults understandable immediately by all adults and easily assimilated by children even before they can read. I believe that a three strand abacus will enable a two to five year old child to grasp basic counting and enhance the reading of numbers. A seven strand abacus with written words would enable children from five years old onwards to grasp the concept of mathematics, reading numbers to a million, working sums involving one million, exploring the child's own resources enabling the child to comprehend the times tables which will ensure Western children gain equality with children from China and Japan whose families continue to use the original abacus.

I fully understand that the concept of the abacus is one relating to five thousand years research. I seek protection from my concept however large the abacus frame may be and in whatever manufacturing concept is used.

It will be understood that the above drawings illustrate merely a preferred embodiment of the invention and that other embodiments are contemplated within the scope of the claims hereafter set forth.

It is intended that my application includes either hand movements on a frame or movable markers on a written chart both of the type of chart lay out provided in this application or of other charts and lay outs to be developed.

This application is intended to cover written in words answers in any language produced by the use of an electronic or virtual abacus format.

From research already carried out both mathematics and reading ability are enhanced by the repetitive nature of mathematics being taught both in the home and the school using this type of abacus format enabling a child and an adult to visualise in both words and in numbers the mental mathematics needed to promote accelerated learning providing a firm understanding of mathematical concepts both students and adults are faced with throughout their school and working life.

To describe Abacus One as merely a recognition system, ignores the unique abilities of the combination created between mans first technical development and my unique concept. My application is being made under the patent cooperation treaty and the concept is international. The design of the working abacus is not significant. It could be in plastic, wood or metal, it could be electronic or even a virtual abacus on a computer. The significance is in the written words and that particular combination of words that has guided mathematical thinkers in the different languages used throughout the World. It could be as I have intended for simplicity, a three strand abacus in any language suitable for a three to four year old child to begin learning, not only mathematics, but the significance of the written word in its own language enhancing the child's ability to relate mathematical concepts to its own life.

By the age of four years, a child has developed around 80% of its base intelligence.

Natural development has produced the most complicated computer/brain of any living creature. If it were possible to relate the human brain directly to that of a computer, all we would need to do is slot in some software. But, within the mind of a four-year-old child, everything has to be learned. During the course of human life each individual is daily confronted with massive amounts of data.

If we are to understand the concept of my discovery, and relate it to a computer, it has to be on the following basis. Mathematics and thinking are interrelated as regards mans mentality. Reading and visual observation are unique personal skills.

If we fail to teach correctly mathematics and reading, we fail to install the basic software that this enormous data load requires us to deal with.

The significance of the daily input of material, that any human being is subjected to, maybe misread or largely ignored, without that basic installation of the software, that each of us as individuals, requires to process, the lifetime of natural information gathering that we as human beings are capable of.

It is the very uniqueness of this learning concept, in relation to the development of the child's mathematical and intellectual understanding, the simplicity, the child faces in learning those concepts, and in fact, the ability that having learned those concepts simply, are again transferable from child to child.

I claim that my concept is totally unique. I would expect that I should be awarded a patent on an international or country-by-country basis and that the adoption of my process of mathematical teaching would have a significant effect on human behaviour. I therefore seek protection for my concept, whether it is three strands or ten or more and whether it is in English or any other language.

Claims

CLAIM ABACUS ONE A REVOLUTION IN TEACHING THE METHOD MATHS BY MOVEMENT To describe the teaching method developed from the use of abacus one, I shall use a model of two methods that could be used to teach a young person how to drive a car.

Method one. Teaching a young person entirely by the use of a manual, which would entail a lengthy explanation, and a series of pictures and diagrams. However a long a young person was to study the teaching manual and the pictures and diagrams, it would be most unlikely that they could understand the basic concepts in driving a car.

Method two. Let the pupil sit in the driver's seat, let the pupil start the car, show the pupil how to put the car into gear, let out the clutch, steer the car, change gear, use the accelerator, control the speed of the car, stop the car by use of clutch and brake, put the car into reverse gear, control the direction the car goes in either a forward or backward direction, in short how to drive a car in one hour. There are many examples of three and four year-old children driving small cars with electrical or petrol engines.

Driving a car is a multisensory experience, one learns best from doing it, learning mathematics using abacus one, it is also a multisensory experience, my development of the abacus takes it from man's first technical invention into the most advanced teaching tool available, teaching maths in a language, in numerals, illustrating place value, creates clear understanding of the decimal system, abacus one is intended for teaching a four year old child"accelerated learning"between school and home, regular use between school and home for two years will ensure that any speaking child fully comprehends all the basic maths, so ensuring the ability to do high-speed mental arithmetic and thus giving the child the ability to comprehend easily all the advanced mathematics that are needed in secondary school and university education.

I consider that my development of the Greek/Roman abacus is unique. As regards the abacus, no one has ever previously utilised the written word in any language in combination with it. The concept takes the abacus from that of a counter/calculator into a multi sensory teaching tool. Take for example, the three-strand abacus written in English, use the written word five hundred, (the unwritten word and) forty-three. With the addition of (and), the child is able to speak the words directly that it is reading. (543) This affect on the child's brain has two important significances. The word that the child speaks, it remembers as a picture, and the position on the abacus as a mathematical concept. In order to illustrate the teaching abilities of this type of abacus, over it's development I have written two lengthy explanations and in order to accept the unique principals of Abacus One, the significance of these articles are self-evident.

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