Counting machines
The abacus was the “great grandparent” of many other kinds of counting
machines, such as the adding machine, the cash register, the computer,
and the electronic calculator.
It’s easy to see where we got the names adding machine and cash
register. But why computer and calculator? The name computer comes from
a Latin word that means “to count, or reckon.” And calculator comes from
the Latin word calculus, which was what the Romans called a small
stone they used for counting. So, you see, it all goes back to counting
pebbles, or moving beads up and down on an abacus.
A pocket calculator is really a kind of modern abacus. You can use it to
do arithmetic problems very quickly.
