Ask HN: Abacus, learning; Can someone explain the order of pushing the beads
I'm doing it because it's fun to learn new things and because I like the tactile, soundscape and afk aspects of the abacus.
At the moment I'm practising counting up and down with the "correct" fingers but it feels like I want to start doing simple arithmetic calculations (+, -, × & ÷) soon.
However, the resources I'm finding don't really talk about, or even show, the order in which to push the beads.
It might be the case that I'm just overthinking this but somehow I think it matters.
For example: 63 - 27
What is the order to push the beads, and why?
My guess is:
- 1 bead from the earth 10 rod down (-10)
- 1 heaven 1 down (+5)
- 2 earth 1 down (-2)
- 1 heaven 10 up (-50)
- 3 earth 10 up (+30)
So first I do the -7 and then I do the -20, I also move the bead(s) with the highest value first.
Does this seem correct?
I suspect I'm not thinking about the numbers and values correctly as I'm used to think about numbers in 1-10-100s and not in 1-5-10-50-100s.
If you have any resource or your own experience to share I would very much appreciate it.