Hello my dear friends of steemit. Today I want to invite you to a journey through the world of mathematics and, more particularly, through the world of calculation. We will make this trip with a stopover in its journey, that is, from two publications. In a first part, we will review the evolution of the instruments used to perform mathematical calculations that preceded the use of computers. A second post, the next, we will dedicate to the appearance of the most complex electronic devices to perform mathematical calculations. Good friends to fasten the belts that arrived when to take flight and start our mathematical journey.

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Time to board.

Without a doubt, in his eagerness to have a better instrument of calculation that is facilitated by the stormy and complex mathematical operations, man has made great and historic efforts. Before starting, a fact that seems important to note, from the histotic and etymological point of view, is the use of stone, which translates calculi, as an indispensable element in the development of the first instruments of calculation, hence the name of the word calculation.
Now yes, let's start. A historical line that describes our excursion and, in some way, illustrates all that work of elaboration, and improvement, of calculation equipment can be represented by the chronological appearance of the tablets (and grains), the abacus, the machines of calculations and finally the computer.

The tablets

One of the first instruments, which is known, used by man as a means to perform calculations were the clay tablet and chips (or grains). The simplest of these primitive computers allowed simple operations such as counting grains, for example, the Susa tablet, in Iran, about 3100 years BC.

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But there was another type of clay clays more developed, with a type of calculation much higher than the Susa tablet allows. Thus, for example, the Babylonians had clay tablets of division, of squares (of the numbers 1 to 60), of cubes (of the numbers 1 to 32) of square roots and of geometric progressions, that allowed the resolution of some linear, quadratic and cubic equations.
After the tablets the abacus was passed whose validity and functionality lasted for several centuries.

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The Abacus

The abacus is a wooden square with strings or wire through which balls slide in order to perform the calculations.
The use of the abacus is considered initiated employment in China and Japan, where it still has some validity. Its origin is not indeterminate, but its use extended throughout Europe until after the seventeenth century.

In China, until very recently it was a very daily practice to use abacus (suan-pan) in banks and shops.

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The Modern Calculation Machines.

With the arrival of Modernity, already for the seventeenth century, there is a breakthrough in the construction of morden machines to facilitate the complex calculations that historical moment demanded.
This is how, initially, "The Napier Rolls" designed by the Scottish mathematician John Napier, in 1617, used in Scotland for more than a century to make great multiplications.

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For the love of his father: La Pascalina

Later, appears the Pascalina, created by Blas Pascal, in 1642, when only the French mathematician was 19 years old, who motivated by the accounting operations that his father had to carry out he designed that calculating machine to facilitate his work and save him long work hours.

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The Calculation Rule

Some years before, the appearance of the Pascalina, was created in 1922, the Rule of Calculation by the English mathematician Willian Oughtred. The calculation rule allowed to make large multiplications, and divisions, using addition and subtraction.
Even at the end of the last century it was quite normal to use the rule of calculation among students of careers such as engineering, architecture, among other careers associated with numbers and mathematical calculation.

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Up to here, the first part of this low flight so were the means and instruments that preceded the use of computers as the most developed elements, until now known, to perform the great mathematical calculations used by man.
In a next post, we will then talk about the appearance of computers and their use in the use of mathematical calculation. Take a break and take advantage of the scale.