Answer:
But before we get into all that, we should start at computing’s origins, because although electronic computers are relatively new, the need for computation is not.So each bead on the bottom row represents a single unit, in the next row they represent 10, the row above 100, and so on.But if we were to add 5 more after the first 3 we would run out of beads, so we would slide everything back to the left, slide one bead on the second row to the right, representing ten, and then add the final 2 beads on the bottom row for a total of 12.So if we were to add 1,251 we would just add 1 to the bottom row, 5 to the second row, 2 to the third row, and 1 to the fourth row - we don’t have to add in our head and the abacus stores the total for us.Over the next 4000 years, humans developed all sorts of clever computing devices, like the astrolabe, which enabled ships to calculate their latitude at sea.As early computer pioneer Charles Babbage said: “At each increase of knowledge, as well as on the contrivance of every new tool, human labour becomes abridged.”