Abacus Year 4 Textbook 1 Pdf Download ((INSTALL))

The Sri Lankan School Muscat is a community school with 25 years of proud history and modern facilities. The school educates 1,134 students of 17 different nationalities from foundation stage to year 13 (ages 4-18). It prides itself in achieving the highest academic excellence with several students appearing in the top ten world rankings for Edexcel International GCSE and International A Level results.

Here he studied his Latin grammar under a teacher by the name of Raymond, for whom he helda special affection for the rest of his life. Of course, by this time, "grammar" had cometo stand for the verbal skills included in the trivium -- grammar, logic, andrhetoric. In 967, Count Borrell of Barcelona visited the monastery, and the abbot asked thecount to take Gerbert back to Spain with him so that the lad could study mathematics there.It would seem that Gerbert had proven to be an apt pupil, and his abbot wanted to see himgo on to the study of the quadrivium -- arithmetic, geometry, music, and astronomy.Borrell agreed and put the lad in the care of the bishop of Vic, where there was acathedral school. Catalunya, in which both Barcelona and Vic were located, was a frontierterritory, and there was considerable communication between Catalunya and the Muslims ofal-Andalus to the south. Al-Andalus was much more advanced that Christian Europe. Whilethe greatest library in Christian Europe boasted less than a thousand volumes, the libraryin the Muslim capital of Cordoba held over four hundred thousand. Catalunya benefitted fromthe proximity of the cultured Muslims, and the libraries of the cathedral of Vic and thenearby monastery of Ripoll were among the largest and best equipped in Europe.The proximity of the Muslims meant more than that in the matter of the subjects of thequadrivium, however. The Muslims had fallen heir to both Greek and Persian science in theirinitial expansion and had translated many classics into Arabic. At the same time, Arabictraders and travelers were in contact with India and China and had absorbed many of theiradvances. Muslim "scientists" were highly regarded, and perhaps nowhere in Islam as much asin al-Andalus. Muslim astronomy was the most advanced in the world, and Muslim astronomersproficient in using the astrolabe had done much to map the skies. Although the names ofmodern planets and constellations are Latin, the names of most major stars -- Altair,Deneb, Rigel, Sirius, Fomalhaut, Aldeberan, Betelgeuse -- are Arabic as are many of theother terms of astronomy, such as azimuth, almagest, almanac, and the Zodiac. The Arabswere even further advanced in the realm of arithmetic. They had adopted the concept of zerofrom the Indians and used a positional numeric system much like the modern system -- infact, our numerals are based on the Arabic notation. They had also borrowed the abacus fromthe Chinese and were proficient in its use. They had gone beyond arithmetic and hadestablished algebra, were investigating prime numbers and coordinate equations. Their studyof proportions made it possible for them to approach music in a quite precise manner,distinguishing accurately between notes, developing theories of harmonies and discords, andconstructing musical instruments with quite accurate tuning. The cathedral school of Vicwas able to offer Gerbert much of this knowledge, and Gerbert took full advantage of theopportunity.As a matter of fact, his knowledge and abilities were so great that some of hiscontemporaries could not explain them except by assuming that he was ether a magician orhad made a pact with the devil. It was in this fashion that the Gerbert of legend arose.Gerbert had travelled to Spain, where he became the apprentice of a Muslim magician ofwondrous powers. Gerbert came to realize that all of the magician's powers came from thespells that were contained in a book that he kept under lock and key. At the same time, themagician began to suspect that Gerbert wanted to steal his secrets and take them away withhim, and so began to watch him very closely and to hide the key to the chest in which hekept his book. The magician had a beautiful daughter, and Gerbert seduced her with thepromise of taking her away with him and marrying her. The duped girl helped Gerbert put adrug in her father's evening wine and, when he had fallen into a stupor, got the key fromwhere he had hidden it, opened the chest, and gave Gerbert the book.Gerbert immediately fled, leaving the girl behind. When the magician awoke and saw what hadhappened, he got his horse, which could run faster than the wind, and his dog, which couldtrack anything or anyone over or under both ground and water. As he came to the bridge atMartorell, Gerbert heard the magician riding after him and knew that he had to escape themagician's dog. He quickly climbed over the side of the bridge and hung by his handsbeneath it. Since he was neither above or below either the earth or water, the dog lost hisscent, and the baffled magician finally returned home, leaving Gerbert with the book ofspells.Some say that he prayed to Satan to save him from the magician, and that Satan wafted himaway beyond the sea. In order to get home, Gerbert agreed to give his soul to Satan, andSatan, in turn, promised to give him powers even greater than those contained in the bookof spells. The proof that this story is the correct one is found in the fact that Gerbertkept a human head with him and would put the head on his desk and converse with it throughthe night, learning many secrets and about the future from it.In 969, Count Borrell and the bishop of Vic made a pilgrimage to Rome, taking young Gerbertwith them. He met and impressed Pope John XIII (965-971) and the emperor Otto I (962-973),who was visiting there also. The pope persuaded Otto to take Gerbert on as tutor for hisyoung son, who was to become Otto II (973-983). After some years at this task, Otto gaveGerbert leave to go to study advanced logic at the outstanding cathedral school ofReims.He made quite a name for himself at Reims. He set himself to the task of building an organwith constant pressure supplied by water power. There had been organs before, but their airpressure had been generated by the organist pumping with his feet of an assistant pumping alarge bellows. This one not only gave an extended steady level of sound, but its pipes werematched mathematically so that its harmonics were superior to anything heard in the Westbefore. Gerbert had also mastered arabic numerals and so could do calculations in his headthat were extremely difficult for anyone thinking in terms of Roman numerals. He continuedto study the abacus, and even constructed a giant one. He marked out the floor of the naveof the cathedral of Reims like an abacus and made a number of large disks to take the placeof the abacus beads. He gathered some sixty-four members of the cathedral school to helphim, gave them sticks to push the disks, and sat in the organ loft from where he could seethe entire floor. He would call out instructions, and his assistants would move the diskslike a great game of shuffleboard. He was able in this way to deal with numbers both largerand smaller than had ever before been possible. He then wrote a book on the abacus thatbecame standard in the new cathedral schools that were arising and revolutionized the studyof mathematics in the West.He was invited to Ravenna to engage in a debate and, while there, renewed his acquaintancewith his old pupil Otto. Otto was quite impressed by him and, when he became Holy RomanEmperor in 983, he made Gerbert the abbot of the famous monastery of Bobbio and alsoappointed him as count of the district in which it was located. Bobbio had been founded bySt. Columban and had one of the greatest libraries in Western Europe. It was close to Genoaand had grown wealthy from the trade and commerce that were beginning to enrich all ofnorthern Italy, but it had fallen on hard times. Incompetent abbots had depleted itstreasury, local nobles had seized its lands, and its monks had fallen into a dissolute wayof life. Gerbert undertook to remedy these matters, but did not get very far.Otto died the next year, however, and Gerbert lost his patron and protector. Nevertheless,his reputation was so great that he was invited to return as the master of the cathedralschool of Reims and secretary to the archbishop. He became deeply involved in the politicalstruggles of the times. Basically, there was a struggle between the Saxon dynasty ofGermany, represented by the young Otto III and the Carolingian claimants to the throne ofFrance. When Lothair of France attempted to take Lorraine from Otto III in 985, Gerbert andhis archbishop opposed him by supporting Hugh Capet, the count of Paris, as the real rulerof France. By 987, both Lothair and his son had died, and the Carolingian heir was Charles,duke of Lower Lorraine. Charles asked Gerbert and his archbishop for their support, butboth used their influence on behalf of Hugh. Hugh was elected king of France, and theCarolingian line of kings came to an end.The archbishop died in 989, and Gerbert expected to succeed him. Hugh appointed Arnulf, abastard son of the late King Lothair instead. Archbishop Arnulf was conspiring with theCarolingian Duke Charles, however, and turned over Reims to him in 989. The city wasdevastated, Gerbert's possessions seized, and most of his friends imprisoned or driven off.He finally managed to escape his post as the archbishop's secretary and fled to the courtof King Hugh. In 991, Hugh finally had proof of Archbishop Arnulf's treason, deposed him,and appointed Gerbert in his place.From 991-997, struggled to hold on to his archbishopric, but eventually lost out. HughCapet died in 996, and Gerbert clashed with his successor, Robert II (996-1031), whenGerbert declared Robert's marriage to his cousin Bertha illegal. Then, in 997, PopeGregory V (996-998) stripped Gerbert of his episcopal functions. Gerbert fled to the courtof Otto II, where he was welcomed and given a small estate. After a short period ofrelaxation, Gerbert was called to become the teacher and advisor of Otto III, then onlyseventeen years old. Otto was in Ravenna, the southern capital of the Holy Roman Emperorsat the time. When Pope Gregory V died in 999, Otto decided to wrest control of the papacyfrom local politics and did so by appointing Gerbert pope. Gerbert took the name SylvesterII, Sylvester I (314-335) having been the advisor of the emperor Constantine.Within short order, the Roman populace rebelled against a foreign pope, and both Otto andGerbert were forced to flee to Ravenna. Otto led two unsuccessful expeditions to regaincontrol of the city, and, on a third, in 1002, he died in his twenty-first year.The legend says that Gerbert had built a mechanical head that would answer any questionsthat could be answered with either "yes" or "no." It had said "yes" when he asked it if hewould become pope, so he asked it if he would die before he had said mass in Jerusalem. Thehead said "no," and Gerbert decided that he would never go to Jerusalem. In the course ofhis duties, he said mass in one of the smaller churches in Rome and afterwards discoveredthat it was the church of St. Mary of Jerusalem, commonly called by the people simply"Jerusalem." He became sick shortly after, and called for his followers. In his finaldelirium, he asked the cardinals to cut his body into pieces and throw them into thecesspools and garbage dumps of the city, saying that, while his body might belong to Satan,he had never consented in his mind to the oath that the devil had made him swear.Encyclopedia | Library | Reference | Teaching | General | Links | About ORB | HOME