| 词源 |
calculate. The abacus, or counting board, was borrowed by the Romans from the Greeks, who called it an abax. Although today it contains wooden beads strung on wire, it was first di- vided into compartments, with pebbles moved from compart- ment to compartment as the reckoning progressed. Thus, from the Latin name for these abacus pebbles, calculus, comes our word for mathematical reckoning, calculate. |