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Coloring computers: non-electronic computers that work when you color them

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Re: Coloring computers: non-electronic computers that work when you color them

#11
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's too general/abstract. Instead of a square color and circle color, just pick two colors and go with it.

I guess the reason for that is making the instructions understandable even if printing in b/w.

I think that's correct. If I were to do it for my kids I'd probably whip through and colour in the squares and circles beforehand to make it simpler for them

Re: Coloring computers: non-electronic computers that work when you color them

#13
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's too general/abstract. Instead of a square color and circle color, just pick two colors and go with it.

I guess the reason for that is making the instructions understandable even if printing in b/w.

Also it works with colorblind people. This way they can choose the color combination that works for them.

Re: Coloring computers: non-electronic computers that work when you color them

#14
This made me imagine an educational toy that allows you to make working simple circuits by drawing: You draw with markers that have electrically conductive ink, then touch the contacts of a 9-volt battery to your drawing at a certain point and a bulb or LED that you've taped to your drawing lights up. Maybe you'd supply prefabricated stickers that contain logic gates that you stick to the paper where you need a gate.

Re: Coloring computers: non-electronic computers that work when you color them

#15

This made me imagine an educational toy that allows you to make working simple circuits by drawing: You draw with markers that have electrically conductive ink, then touch the contacts of a 9-volt battery to your drawing at a certain point and a bulb or LED that you've taped to your drawing lights up. Maybe you'd supply prefabricated stickers that contain logic gates that you stick to the paper where you need a gate.

It is something there have been around for a few years: https://interestingengineering.com/what-is-conductive-ink-te...

Re: Coloring computers: non-electronic computers that work when you color them

#17
Reminds me of Turing Tumble, marble powered computers (https://upperstory.com/turingtumble/). My 8 year old got one for his birthday and it's one of the very few toys he actually likes better than screen time!

I assume that the kind of things you make when coloring are very similar to the marble computers, the rules of the Tumble components would translate very close to the coloring rules, I think.

Re: Coloring computers: non-electronic computers that work when you color them

#18
The Dutch childrens magazine Donald Duck included a DIY cardboard 3 bit computer in four editions in 1980. It was powered by a marble and gravity and it included QA cards, like “What shall we eat? followed by three questions (hungry? Want sweet? etc) and then on the back of the cards there were eight answers. You set the switches to left or right, put in the marble at the top and looked up the answer corresponding to the place where the marble appeared.

I was seven years old and at that moment I decided I wanted to become a computer scientist. It determined my life.

http://rene.steetskamp.nl/2015/04/

Re: Coloring computers: non-electronic computers that work when you color them

#19

This made me imagine an educational toy that allows you to make working simple circuits by drawing: You draw with markers that have electrically conductive ink, then touch the contacts of a 9-volt battery to your drawing at a certain point and a bulb or LED that you've taped to your drawing lights up. Maybe you'd supply prefabricated stickers that contain logic gates that you stick to the paper where you need a gate.

As the other comment mentions, this is a thing already, but thanks for bringing it up. I'd completely forgotten about it and it seems like a good hands-on way to get a better understanding of circuits.
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