Comments on: Arcane abacus geekery.

By: Athena

Athena — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 04:59:32 +0000

ooo. math. cool. very cool

By: bullet

bullet — Sun, 15 Jul 2007 19:57:08 +0000

Aha! I still don’t understand it but now I’ve seen the soroban abacuses I can see there’s more rows than I’m used to.

By: andreashettle

andreashettle — Sun, 15 Jul 2007 15:16:42 +0000

Nothing to do with abacus, but still of possible interest to geeks in general, but particularly geeks who love astronomy: http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/space/07/12/galaxy.internet.ap/index.html# Scientists have asked lay people around the world to help them catalog galaxies by type (spiral, elipitcal, etc). The link above takes you to the article about it. http://www.galaxyzoo.org/ takes you to the site where you can get a few minutes of on-line training in cataloging galaxies and get started. I don't normally consider myself a geek, at least not in the sense of actually understanding computers (beyond the basics) or, er, understanding the inherent appeal of abacus (sorry, Shane Baggs!). But I'm geeky enough to find cataloging galaxies fun :-)

By: Steve D

Steve D — Sun, 15 Jul 2007 03:56:17 +0000

Hi Amanda. I tagged you with a meme.
http://onedadsopinion.blogspot.com/
I hope you don’t mind. I am commenting here as opposed to the post regarding Kassiane due to the fact that this is way too unimportant to clog those comments with something of this nature. And, yes, I did take the time to send something to Kassiane prior to spending the time writing my post and then tagging you – I do try to keep my priorities straight.
Anyhow, I don’t know if this is your thing or not, but if so then consider yourself tagged.

Thanks,
Steve

By: Shane Baggs

Shane Baggs — Sat, 14 Jul 2007 20:32:34 +0000

Thank you for posting this!

I’d be confused too if my first introduction to the abacus had been square and cube roots!
Instead of following that “deep link” to my cube root page, try this link to Totton’s website itself: http://webhome.idirect.com/~totton
The introduction, “Abacus: Mystery of the Bead,” will clear up any confusion over the dense diagrams, and enable you to read any of the many advanced pages on this site (click on “My page of advanced techniques…”) including my “Japanese cube root” page, in any order you choose.

My reason for putting up the page was to make cube roots on the soroban available to any interested member of the general public, not just a few experts. I’m overjoyed that it may be getting attention from the Cranmer abacus people and the blind community!

By: bullet

bullet — Fri, 13 Jul 2007 10:52:15 +0000

I don’t understand it myself, but it would be very useful to somebody who does. I know how to calculate cubes, but have to do it in my own way, which involves a lot of addition.
Byu the way, did you know that the word “calculus” literally means “voting with pebbles”? The Ancient Greeks used to have a system of voting where they’d put these little pebbles into jars. When the Romans found about about this they called the procedure “calculus”, because of the stones (think of calcium or calcified) and in turn that came to mean counting.

By: laurentius-rex

laurentius-rex — Fri, 13 Jul 2007 01:25:00 +0000

abacair it’s abaci and calculicous in its stony caldness (sic) I marble at this petrified rosary half as old as thyme.

By: noah

noah — Fri, 13 Jul 2007 00:42:20 +0000

basically off-topic, but have you ever read the comic strip XKCD?
i like it.
it’s filled with math jokes, in addition to other stuff.
http://xkcd.com/c282.html

By: Justthisguy

Justthisguy — Fri, 13 Jul 2007 00:13:39 +0000

Wow, that is some very, uh, *dense* writing. If I were to attempt to understand it, I’d have to have my hands on an actual soroban of the type described, and actually go through the physical manipulations.

It is way kewl, and thanks, Ma’am!

By: andreashettle

andreashettle — Fri, 13 Jul 2007 00:02:49 +0000

I glanced at it … and have NO clue what it’s saying :-)