Un-Automate is a series of posts about fun, low-tech, and/or creative solutions for people who want less automation in their lives.
Counting with marbles...
Our first un-automate adventure is a fun, clever alternative to the old abacus.
Basic idea:
The Table to the left shows the basic layout of the counting tray.
notice the rows labeled 1, 4, 16, and 64. also note how the cells have a max of 4 marbles in each.
The filled column contains the value 340. But how?
The Trick is those numbers show how much a marble in that row is worth.
64*4=256
16*4=64
4*4=16
1*4=4
256+64+16+4=340