Air Abacus

 

When I was a child, most of my classmates went to abacus classes or calligraphy classes after school. I went to a calligraphy class.

When I was a junior high school student, I was a member of the student council. One day, when we were working on a school event, we needed to do a calculation. Of course, we didn’t have any cell phones or smartphones. I knew there was a calculator in the teachers’ office, but it was a very expensive treasure. We couldn’t borrow it. So I tried to write down the calculation and solve it.

However, one of the council members said, “Let me calculate it.”

He started doing mental calculations. He had studied the abacus, but his mental calculation style was very funny. There wasn’t any abacus, but he moved his fingers as if he had one. It was an “air abacus.” I had no idea about the abacus, so I laughed about it—but his calculations were always right.

The student council often needed to do calculations. Every time we requested him to do mental calculations, I asked him, “Do you need to move your fingers during calculations?”

He answered, “Yes, I need to.”

I doubted him because the mental calculations were done in his brain. Fingers were not related. I thought I needed to do an experiment.

One day, as usual, we asked him to do some calculations. He started the mental calculations while moving his fingers. I slapped his moving fingers.

He shouted, “I am confused!” He really needed to move his fingers during calculations.

Calculations and fingers are related to people who have studied the abacus. I am thinking that the same thing might be said about air guitarists. If you slap an air guitarist’s fingers, the air guitarist might say, “I am confused!”

Dear friends, don’t disturb air players.

 

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Picture by freehand