Turing Tumble

Turing Tumble is a game and demonstration of logic gates via mechanical computer. Named after Alan Turing, the game itself is advertised as Turing complete, and can (abstractly) duplicate the processes of any computer whatsoever if the game field were sufficiently large.[1] It is also PSPACE complete by the circuit value problem,[2][3] and in its method of operation has implications for nanotechnology.[4][5]

Although it resembles a pachinko machine in its aesthetic use of gravity-fed metal balls, it is primarily a teaching device in the fundamentals of logic-computer programming, and as such is an example of gamification. The framing device in the included comic book features an astronaut who must solve sixty increasingly difficult logic problems which illustrate the fundamentals of computer programming. The impetus of the puzzle itself was the frustration of the programmer and chemistry professor Paul Boswell (along with his wife, Alyssa Boswell, a DIY maker), then at the University of Minnesota, at the lack of computing prowess of other scientists which was necessary for their own projects; he was already well known for programming complex games for Texas Instruments computers. They were also inspired by the Digi-Comp II, a precursor from the late 1960s.[6]

Construction

A turning tumble machine has the following parts:

  • Ball drops. The standard version uses two ramps which store a given number of balls. A switch at the bottom of the board triggers the release of the initial ball (typically blue), from the top left of the panel. The second ramp, on the right, contains red balls.
  • Ramps and crossovers. The green ramp allows the balls to run down it one way and release it in only that direction, whereas the orange crossover lets balls traverse it to either side both ways, i.e. from right to left and vice versa.
  • Interceptors. This black piece stops a ball.
  • Bits. This is a one-bit storage: it changes direction when a ball rolls through, such that the next ball goes to the other side.
  • Gear and gear bits. Gear bits are exactly like regular bits, but they can be connected to gears. The gears allow for linking state changes, thus integrally adding extra (abstract) power.

Reception

Critically it has received high praise for its concept and execution,[7] albeit with some caveats (the recommended age being 8+).[8]

The computing game has won the Parents' Choice Gold Award, and won in the category Best Toys of the Year 2018 under the aegis American Specialty Toy Retailing Association.

References
  1. Biggs, Joe (2017-05-30). "The Turing Tumble lets you and your kids build real mechanical computers". TechCrunch. Archived from the original on 2019-06-08. Retrieved 2020-01-02.
  2. Matthew, Johnson (April 2019). "Turing Tumble Is P(SPACE)-Complete". Algorithms and Complexity, 11th International Conference, Proceedings: 274–285. doi:10.1007/978-3-030-17402-6_23.
  3. Hoover, H. James (2019-05-26). "Turing Tumble is P-Complete". sites.ualberta.ca. Archived from the original on 2020-07-27.
  4. Tomita, Takahiro (20–22 June 2018). "Constructing Reversible Logic Elements on Turing Tumble Model" (PDF). Proceedings of Automata 2018: 25–32. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2020-05-06. Retrieved 2019-12-10. (NB. A longer version was published in 2019.)
  5. Tomita, Takahiro; Lee, Jia; Isokawa, Teijiro; Peper, Ferdinand; Yumoto, Takayuki; Kamiura, Naotake (2019-09-03). "Universal logic elements constructed on the Turing Tumble". Natural Computing. Springer-Verlag. 19 (9). doi:10.1007/s11047-019-09760-8. eISSN 1572-9796. ISSN 1567-7818. S2CID 201714072. Archived from the original on 2020-09-21. Retrieved 2020-07-27. (NB. A short version of this paper was presented at AUTOMATA 2018.)
  6. Frauenfelder, Mark (2017-04-30). "Cool marble-powered mechanical computer to solve logic problems". BoingBoing. Archived from the original on 2020-07-27. Retrieved 2019-12-10.
  7. Hall, Stephen (2018-12-05). "Review: Turing Tumble". Geeks Under Grace. Archived from the original on 2019-12-02. Retrieved 2019-12-10.
  8. "Turing Tumble: A Timberdoodle Review". MamaBeanAz. 2019-09-15. Archived from the original on 2020-07-27. Retrieved 2019-12-10.
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