← Beads Before Numbers · Lesson 2 of 3
A bead is a place
On a Japanese soroban each rod has one bead above a bar and four below. A lower bead pushed up to the bar counts one; the upper bead pushed down to the bar counts five.
So seven on one rod is the upper bead down and two lower beads up: five and two. Each rod to the left is worth ten times the one to its right, exactly like the places in a written number.
On a soroban rod, how do you show seven?
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