Un-Automate #1 - marble counting table.

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

Carrying couldn't be simpler:

Notice the Table with the 4 marbles in the 1 row. say we are done adding and want to optimize our table.

What we can do is simply add a marble to the 4ths row since its available, and remove the 4 marbles from the 1nes row.



If you want to count by say 5s, you would add 1 marble to row "4" and 1 to row "1", repeat this in adjacent columns as needed.

you could even multiply by 4 by shifting each row up.

Don't have marbles or a tray handy? you can use a paper grid, and perhaps paper clips?

Or you could go all out and make a fancy counting tray out of wood with plenty of rows and columns.