timer

How can we measure time using roons?

Every time the marble arrives back at its starting point, we know another 2 steps have passed.

What if we want to measure a longer period of time?

This marble takes 10 steps to return to its starting point. The current position of the marble tells us exactly where we are in this 10-step cycle.

But 10 steps still isn’t long enough to do anything useful with. How can we extend our timer’s maximum duration?

prime number timer

Each of these timers is based on a different prime number. For them to all return home at the same time, we need to wait 2 x 3 x 5 x 7 = 210 steps.

That’s better than 10 steps, but still:

• The timer takes up a full disk
• 210 steps is an awkward number
• It’s not clear how to actually do anything with it

To build a better timer, we need to introduce some interacting roons that let marbles affect each other.

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