I was hoping someone would come up with a lovely old abacus. Well done, Carl, this one is really good. I love the angle you've chosen, the rich wood and it looks as though it's been well used. Do YOU know how to use it? I do, although I'd be pretty rusty on it now.

Michael

Michael,

Thanks for the kind words. I must admit that I do not know how to operate an abacus. I purchased this one on a trip to China and it is a piece of art in its own right. If push came to shove, I could probably remember how to use my slide ruler, but the abacus predates my mathematic enlightenment by several centuries :-)

Carl

I was going to do one of these as well... Glad you posted this one though. I REALLY like the brown/orange tones; lots of complementary shapes and colors give your shot an especially ancient look. I like the title too.

Joe

Photonic wrote:
Michael,

Thanks for the kind words. I must admit that I do not know how to operate an abacus. I purchased this one on a trip to China and it is a piece of art in its own right. If push came to shove, I could probably remember how to use my slide ruler, but the abacus predates my mathematic enlightenment by several centuries :-)

Carl

Each column or "stick" is a digit, and it is base-10. The bottom five beans count 1-5, or 6-10. What differentiates whether or not it is a 1 or a 6 depends on the position of the two beans in the top section. In other words, if the two beans at the top are "down", then you simply move the 5 beans at the bottom to count 0 through 5. Then, once you hit 5, if you move up ONE of the top 2 beans, and all the 5 beans at the bottom down to zero again, then it's also 5. 1 top bean + 1 bottom bean = 6, and so forth. 1 top bean + 5 bottom beans = 10, or 2 top beans + 0 bottom bean.

Joe,

Thanks for the kind feedback. The patina on the wood was really outstanding and my goal was to keep the colors as accurate as possible. I tried a few different lighting arrangements and final settled on two incandescent lamps which helped accentuate the shapes.

Keith,

Thanks for the abacus math lesson. I will teach my kids this evening and see if we can have some fun doing some simple additions. You used the term beans to describe the wooden spheres. Is this where the term "bean counter" originated?

Beautiful wood tones, Carl! Nice control over the DOF as well. Good luck!

Hi Carl,

I've been out of town for almost a week and finally got around to checking FM today. I saw this shot on the assignment board and really liked it. You really lit this nicely. I can almost feel the texture of the wood.

My father is a math professor, and he used to do his taxes with an abacus, just to show us how cool old technology could still be...of course, he still shaves with a straight razor too. Anyway, its a cool photo. Nice work.