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In no event shall the author or publisher be held liable
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While every effort has been made to ensure reliability of
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ideas contained in the material herein is the sole
responsibility of the reader.

D ear R ead er
I would like firstly to thank you for your investment in
th is eb ook, M en tal A rith m etic Th rou gh A bacu s. I am
confident that you will find the information in this ebook
useful for your mental arithmetic calculation. In writing
this book I have assumed that you, the reader, have a
some basic knowledge of abacus.
This is a fairly simple book to understand, as I have tried
to keep this book concise and very focused on the
objective of monitoring mental arithmetic. In this book
you will find hands-on exercises to many of the problems
faced by users to calculate the numbers in mind using
easy and legitimate techniques that have worked for me
and many others.
Through the pages of this book, I will teach you the
exact same techniques that I used to figuring out the
numbers. Techniques that you can apply yourself and see
the real results.
I g u aran tee you w ill fin d in sigh ts h ere th at you w ou ldn t
fin d an yw h ere else. M en tal A rith m etic T h rou g h A b acu s
allow you to initiate and accelerate your mental counting
sequence away from difficult summarize traditional
methods!
I sincerely hope that you will greatly benefit from reading
th is b ook. M y w ish is th at you ll reach a h igh er level of
achievement. Your success is a representation of our
success. We hope that your success will be an inspiration
to others.

Should you have any feedback or comments please feel

free to contact me at kidsmathblog@yahoo.com
We would like to hear from you and of your success. If
you feel that this ebook has benefited you, we welcome
your testimonial.

God Bless

Charles O
www.KidsMathBlog.com

About The Author

Charles O
Charles O is w id ely con sid ered on e of th e w eb s leading
math consultants.
He has been teaching math since 1996 and is the owner
of Super Math Company, serving dozens of students in
its network.
H e h as b een on e of th e featu red sp eakers in M alaysia
mental math seminars and recognized as mental
counting, power math teacher.
Charles O has helped many his students to gain the
confidence and establish strong fundamental of math
since 1996.
W h en h es n ot w orkin g, C h arles is spen din g tim e w ith h is
family (lovely wife Elizabeth and two daughters Jacinta
and Emily).
Some of his ebooks are as below:
Success in Math
Mental Arithmetic Through Abacus
Advance Mental Arithmetic Through Abacus

Preface
An abacus also called a counting frame, is a calculating tool
for performing arithmetic processes. Nowadays, abacus are
often constructed as a wooden frame with beads sliding on
wires, but originally they were beads or stones moved in
grooves in sand or on tablets of wood, stone, or metal. The
abacus was in use centuries before the adoption of the
written modern numeral system and is still widely used by
merchants and clerks in China, Japan, Africa, India and
elsewhere.
However, mental arithmetic is the practice of doing
mathematical calculations using only the human brain, with
no help from any computing devices. Mental calculations are
not only helpful when computing tools are not available, but
they also can be helpful in situations where it is beneficial to
calculate with speed.
This abacus system of mental calculation is a system where
users mentally visualize an abacus to do calculations. No
physical abacus is used; only the answers are written down.
This system is being propagated in China, Singapore, South
Korea, Thailand, Malaysia, and Japan. Mental calculation is
said to improve mental capability, increases speed of
response, memory power, and concentration power.
Many veteran and prolific abacus users in China, Japan,
South Korea, and others who use the abacus daily, naturally
tend to not use the abacus anymore but perform calculations
by visualizing the abacus. This was verified when the right
brain measured heightened EEG activity when calculating and
compared with non-veterans who were using the abacus to
perform calculations.

Y o u ll learn :
The quick and easy way of abacus learning formula.
Illustrated explanation of calculating using the
abacus.
Visualizing operations and results.
Step by step abacus practices.
Provide the best visual model for arithmetic
operations.
Perform MENTAL arithmetic computations using
abacus.
Develop computational competency.
Provide a tool to understand the concept of addition
and subtraction.
Able to develop basic mental calculation abilities.
Sharpen observation towards the figures.
A quick and easy technique for using right brain to
produce speed counting results.

Table of Contents
Chapter 1 Introduction ......................................... 8
1.1 Sitting posture and holding the abacus. ............... 8
1.2 The function of right hand ................................10
1.3 Parts of abacus ...............................................12
1.4 Place Value of Upper & Lower Beads ..................13
1.5 Moving the Beads ...........................................18
1.6 Representation of numbers...............................20
Chapter 2 Addition...............................................23
2.1 Direct Addition ...............................................23
2.2 Pool Five Method or Little Friend Theory .............30
2.3 Addition with Carrying of Numbers ....................39
2.4 Integration of addition with pool five and carrying
numbers method. .................................................56
Chapter 3 Subtraction ..........................................66
3.1 Direct Subtraction ...........................................66
3.2 Break 5 Method ..............................................72
3.3 Subtraction with removing of numbers ...............80
3.4 Integration of subtraction with break five and
removing of numbers method. ...............................97
ANSWERS .......................................................... 107

Chapter 1

Introduction

1.1 Sitting posture and holding the abacus.

(i) Sitting Posture
Sit upright, relax both shoulders, slightly lean forward,
both feet placed naturally opened with toes pointing
outward. Keep your feet at a distance of about 10 cm
apart and inclined at about 15 degrees between them.
Keep your chest at a fixed distance from the edge of the
table and do not let the body lean against the chair.
The picture below shows the side view of the proper
sitting posture.

(ii) Placing & Holding of Abacus

The abacus may be placed at 8 10 cm away from the
edge of the desk and parallel to it as well as directly in
front of your body. Remember to place the middle finger
of your left hand on the clearing device. Improper placing
of abacus will affect the prompt and accuracy of
calculation.
The picture below shows the proper sitting posture while
holding abacus.

1.2 The function of right hand

(i) Holding of Abacus
Hold on to the left side of the abacus with your left hand
when you are performing the calculation operation.

(ii) Holding of Pen/Pencil

The ability to move the beads and hold the pen/pencil
correctly will influence the prompt calculation operation.
Therefore, it is crucial to master the proper pen/pencil
holding method.
Since there are several ways of holding the pen/pencil, a
better way is the whole holding method. The length of
the pen/pencil is suggested to be 14 18 cm and
medium in size. One end of the pen/pencil should be
facing the right direction while the other end is to be held
between the thumb and forefinger. Slightly curve the
ring finger and the little finger to the palm and gently
hold the pen/pencil, so that the beads can be moved
easily.

10

(iii) Fingering

Middle finger

Forefinger

Thumb

Thumb : Move lower beads towards the

beam.
Forefinger: Move lower beads away the
beam.
Middle finger: Move upper bead toward &
away the beam.
11

1.3 Parts of abacus

(i)

Frame

(ii) Beam

The little rectangular wood

surrounding the abacus is called
the frame
: The little wood that divides
the abacus into two parts is
called the beam

(iii) Rod

: The little rod piercing through

the beads is called the rod

(iv) Upper Bead

: The bead pierced by the rod

above the beam is called upper
bead

(v) Lower Bead

: The bead pierced by the rod

below the beam is called lower
bead

12

1.4 Place Value of Upper & Lower Beads

Starting point to place value

can be started at any possible
rod such as the second rod
from the right side of abacus
or others.

13

The pictures below show the value of lower beads.

14

15

The pictures below show the value of upper bead at

abacus.

16

17

1.5 Moving the Beads

18

19

1.6 Representation of numbers

20

21

22

Chapter 2 Addition
2.1 Direct Addition
Direct addition is used to calculate the lower beads or
upper beads without carrying numbers.

23

24

25

26

27

28

Exercises
Try the exercises below.

29

2.2 Pool Five Method or Little Friend Theory

Pool five or Little Friend Theory is used to calculate when
the lower beads are not enough for addition.

30

31

You can see how theory of little friend been applied at

the following examples to calculate when the lower beads
are not enough for addition.

32

33

34

35

36

37

38

2.3 Addition with Carrying of Numbers

Addition with carrying of numbers is used to calculate
when there are not enough beads for addition for the
amounts more than 9.
For example 13, 16, 27, 54 and etc.
In abacus, we use concept of supplement to solve these
problems.

Concept of Supplement or
Big Friend Theory means
that if the sum of two
numbers is 10, then these
two numbers are the
supplement for each other.

39

40

41

42

43

44

45

46

47

48

49

50

51

52

53

54

Do the exercises below.

55

2.4 Integration of addition with pool five and

carrying numbers method.
There is some addition where there is not enough beads
for calculation, we have to use combination of addition
with pool five method and carrying numbers method to
solve the problems.

56

57

58

59

60

61

62

63

64

Do the exercises below.

65

Chapter 3 Subtraction
3.1 Direct Subtraction
Direct subtraction is used to calculate the lower beads or
upper beads without carrying numbers.

66

67

68

69

70

71

3.2 Break 5 Method

Break 5 method is applying the same little friend theory
from pool 5 method.
It used to calculate when the lower beads are not enough
for subtraction, by moving the upper beads together with
lower beads to solve the problems.
As we know from pool 5, little friend of 2 is 3 and little
friend of 1 is 4, break 5 method is using exact the same
little friend theory in calculating pool 5 method.

72

73

74

75

76

77

78

Try the following exercises.

79

3.3 Subtraction with removing of numbers.

Subtraction with removing of numbers is used to
calculate when there are not enough beads for
subtraction. It also uses big friend method to solve the
problems.
Just like big friend for addition, big friend for subtraction
also use the concept of supplement where if the sum of
two numbers is ten, then these two numbers are
supplement with each other.
This has been shown in the picture below.

80

81

82

83

84

85

86

87

88

89

90

91

92

93

94

Try the exercises below.

95

96

3.4 Integration of subtraction with break five and

removing of numbers method.
Some subtraction cannot be solved by using direct
subtraction, break five or removing of numbers method
along. So we have to use the combination of these
together in order to find the answer.
The following show the step necessary to carry out the
calculation and summary of the whole subtraction.

97

98

99

100

101

102

103

104

105

Try the exercises below.

106

ANSWERS

107

108

109

110

111

112

113

114

C o n clu sion
The tactics and strategies outlined in this ebook are just
the beginning. By combining these techniques and
testin g you r ow n , you ll fin d all sorts of th in g s to
tweak and test on mental math calculation. And your
math result will undoubtedly improve as a result,
sometimes by a lot.
B u t for all th e tech n iq u es an d strategies in th e w orld, its
only by taking action following the system that works
th at you ll see resu lts. A n d I sin cerely h ope you will. I
can t h elp you w ith th e takin g action p art becau se
you re th e p erson deciding that. But I can definitely help
you with the right system to increase your mental math
with my mental arithmetic through abacus.
A Few Last Words
It's been my pleasure to be able to show you how easy it
really is to perform powerful mental arithmetic through
abacus that gets the results you're really after. I hope this
course has inspired you to get started right away.

Best Wish
Charles O

115