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View Full Version : Bizarre Object Found on UNC Campus: Explanation Needed



boyce
03-04-2007, 02:01 PM
Spotted during a visit Friday afternoon:

http://www.procourse.com/unc_bizarre.jpg

This is sort of like those New Yorker cartoons where you have to submit a caption for, except there's probably more funny things to say.

-Boyce

allenmurray
03-04-2007, 02:04 PM
It has been there for a while. I think that their IT depaertment is cliaming to have invented the abacus.

BluBones
03-04-2007, 02:19 PM
Weird to go to all that trouble to build a giant abacus and then not display it right side up.

hughgs
03-04-2007, 02:26 PM
Weird to go to all that trouble to build a giant abacus and then not display it right side up.
Uh, actually the abacus is right side up. My dad taught me to use an abacus in elementary school (something he learned in elementary school) and it's definitely not upside down. Now, they are missing a set of beads on both the top and bottom. It should have 2 beads on the top and five beads on the bottom. They help facilitate carrying during addition.

throatybeard
03-04-2007, 03:20 PM
Bizarre Object Found on UNC Campus: Explanation Needed

Given the thread title, I was expecting a picture of Ivory Latta.

Karl Beem
03-04-2007, 03:23 PM
No,it's to celebrate the Helms Foundation decision that UNC had invented the abacus.

godukecom
03-04-2007, 03:48 PM
that is a japanesse abacus
http://webhome.idirect.com/~totton/abacus/pages.htm
here is a simple explanation if you are dont want the trouble of clicking the link
The Japanese Soroban
http://webhome.idirect.com/~totton/abacus/1.gif

willywoody
03-04-2007, 05:00 PM
so the unc IT dept invented the japanese abacus. how cool is that!

hughgs
03-04-2007, 05:48 PM
that is a japanesse abacus
http://webhome.idirect.com/~totton/abacus/pages.htm
here is a simple explanation if you are dont want the trouble of clicking the link
The Japanese Soroban
http://webhome.idirect.com/~totton/abacus/1.gif
Ah, that explains it. I learned on the Chinese abacus. My bad, I just assumed that they were all alike since I had seen a Russian one years ago and I remember it as being the same as the Chinese abacus. Thanks and sorry about that. As an aside I don't think it really matters where the units bar starts. The one my dad had used a metal bar to denote the units place. And it had about 5 or 6 rows to the right of it.

BluBones
03-04-2007, 05:49 PM
Uh, actually the abacus is right side up. My dad taught me to use an abacus in elementary school (something he learned in elementary school) and it's definitely not upside down. Now, they are missing a set of beads on both the top and bottom. It should have 2 beads on the top and five beads on the bottom. They help facilitate carrying during addition.

My bad. I didn't think it was upside down; I thought it was on its side. After some minimal googling I find that that was because the abacus I learned to use in elementary school was apparently a Russian abacus:

http://content.answers.com/main/content/wp/en-commons/thumb/9/98/180px-Schoty_abacus.jpg

Communist influence? Probably.