Japanese organisers believe they have created the world`s longest abacus. Tokyo residents were invited on Sunday (April 14) by the metropolitan government to create the world`s longest abacus.
Using 2,002 reeds and 10,010 beads they managed to reconstruct within two hours a 34.5 metre long abacus. But while on average abacuses can calculate figures up to 20 digits long, Sunday`s was able to do over a hundred times more. The event, staged in order to re-evaluate the ancient calculator, was held as computers and electronic gadgets have taken over the art of calculating with this traditional tool. Even until quite recently everyone in Japan from schoolchildren to bankers were proficient in tweaking the beads to and fro, calculating everything from subtractions to complicated divisions. Organisers are planning to apply to the Guinness Book of World Records to register the abacus as the world`s longest. Currently that record is held by a professionally built abacus measuring 7.5 metres long.