This modern version of the abacus has beads in five colors and number grids horizontally and vertically on the outer edges of the 9" x 6" frame. Around the world, many cultures use the abacus in pre-schools and elementary schools as an aid in teaching the numeral system and arithmetic. The abacus is often used as a hands-on tool to represent numbers without the use of place value. Each bead and each wire has the same value and used in this way it can represent numbers up to 100.