Count me in

Arithmomania is a mental condition marked by a compulsive need to count actions or objects around you - perhaps steps, or the letters in a word, or the holes in a ceiling tile, or even angels dancing on the point of a needle.

You may count aloud, or mumble the number to yourself as you walk, brush your teeth or exercise.

Count von Count on Sesame Street has this problem!  Do you?



Synesthesia is another math-related condition where people tend to see (sense) a connection between two different items - such as numbers, letters and colors.

In the picture you can see the 2 and N are the same color. A person with synesthesia might tell you a word is misspelled or a sum is incorrect because they would "see" in their heads or in the air that the color patterns are wrong.

This is not considered a disability. It's a special sense, like the musical gift of absolute or perfect pitch.

The rest of us count on our fingers, or do the work in our heads, or rely on any number of manufactured devices. Here is a list of a few that I found:

• calculator
• abacus
• slide rule
• computer
• finger counting
• counting board
• counting table
• adding machine
• finger register
• rent table
• Incan quipu
• tally cords
• split tally stick
• salamis tablet
• Napier's bones
• Pascal's calculator
• Comptometer
• coin counter
• count chanting
  
• voting machines
  

Jim at our church uses
one of these devices to
count the people attending
each worship service.

Click, click, click.