A sand table uses constrained sand for modelling or educational purposes. The original version of a sand table may be the ''abax'' used by early Greek students. In the modern era, one common use for a sand table is to make terrain models for

military plan A military operation plan (commonly called a war plan before World War II) is a formal plan for military armed forces, their military organizations and units to conduct operations, as drawn up by commanders within the combat operations process ...

ning and

wargaming A normal wargame is a strategy game in which two or more players command opposing armed forces in a simulation of an armed conflict. Wargaming may be played for recreation, to train military officers in the art of strategic thinking, or to st ...

Abax

An ''abax'' was a table covered with sand commonly used by students, particularly in Greece, to perform studies such as writing, geometry, and calculations. The ''abax'' was the predecessor to the

abacus An abacus ( abaci or abacuses), also called a counting frame, is a hand-operated calculating tool which was used from ancient times in the ancient Near East, Europe, China, and Russia, until the adoption of the Hindu–Arabic numeral system. A ...

. Objects, such as stones, were added for counting and then columns for place-valued arithmetic. The demarcation between an ''abax'' and an abacus seems to be poorly defined in history; moreover, modern definitions of the word ''abacus'' universally describe it as a frame with rods and beads and, in general, do not include the definition of "sand table". The sand table may well have been the predecessor to some

board games A board game is a type of tabletop game that involves small objects () that are placed and moved in particular ways on a specially designed patterned game board, potentially including other components, e.g. dice. The earliest known uses of the ...

. ("The word abax, or abacus, is used both for the reckoning-board with its counters and the play-board with its pieces, ..."). ''Abax'' is from the old Greek for "sand table".

Ghubar

An Arabic word for sand (or dust) is ''ghubar'' (or ''gubar''), and Western numerals (the

decimal The decimal numeral system (also called the base-ten positional numeral system and denary or decanary) is the standard system for denoting integer and non-integer numbers. It is the extension to non-integer numbers (''decimal fractions'') of th ...

digits 0–9) are derived from the style of digits written on ''ghubar'' tables in North-West Africa and Iberia, also described as the 'West Arabic' or 'gubar' style.

Military use

Exercise Desert Punch Marine sand table 2

Sand tables have been used for

ning and

for many years as a field expedient, small-scale map, and in

training Training is teaching, or developing in oneself or others, any skills and knowledge or fitness that relate to specific useful competencies. Training has specific goals of improving one's capability, capacity, productivity and performance. I ...

for military actions. In 1890 a Sand table room was built at the

Royal Military College of Canada The Royal Military College of Canada (), abbreviated in English as RMC and in French as CMR, is a Military academy#Canada, military academy and, since 1959, a List of universities in Canada#Ontario, degree-granting university of the Canadian ...

for use in teaching cadets military tactics; this replaced the old sand table room in a pre-college building, in which the weight of the sand had damaged the floor. The use of sand tables increasingly fell out of favour with improved maps, aerial and satellite photography, and later, with digital terrain simulations. More modern sand tables have incorporated

Augmented Reality Augmented reality (AR), also known as mixed reality (MR), is a technology that overlays real-time 3D computer graphics, 3D-rendered computer graphics onto a portion of the real world through a display, such as a handheld device or head-mounted ...

, such as the Augmented Reality Sandtable (ARES) developed by the

Army Research Laboratory The U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command Army Research Laboratory (DEVCOM ARL) is the foundational research laboratory for the United States Army under the United States Army Futures Command (AFC). DEVCOM ARL conducts intramural an ...

. Today, virtual and conventional sand tables are used in operations training. In 1991, "Special Forces teams discovered an elaborate sand-table model of the Iraqi military plan for the defense of Kuwait City. Four huge red arrows from the sea pointed at the coastline of Kuwait City and the huge defensive effort positioned there. Small fences of concertina wire marked the shoreline and models of artillery pieces lined the shore area. Throughout the city were plastic models of other artillery and air defense positions, while thin, red-painted strips of board designated supply routes and main highways." In 2006,

Google Earth Google Earth is a web mapping, web and computer program created by Google that renders a 3D computer graphics, 3D representation of Earth based primarily on satellite imagery. The program maps the Earth by superimposition, superimposing satelli ...

users looking at satellite photography of China found a several ''kilometre'' large "sand table" scale model, strikingly reminiscent of a mountainous region (

Aksai Chin Aksai Chin is a region administered by China partly in Hotan County, Hotan Prefecture, Xinjiang, and partly in Rutog County, Ngari Prefecture, Tibet Autonomous Region, Tibet, and constituting the easternmost portion of the larger Kashmir regio ...

) which China occupies militarily in a disputed zone with India, 2400 km from the model's location. Speculation has been rife that the terrain is used for military exercises of familiarisation. File:US Navy 090722-N-8566F-014 Amela Sadagic demonstrates the virtual sand table for urban warfare operations training rehearsals during the MOVES 9th Annual Research Summit.jpg, virtual sand table for urban warfare operations training File:US Navy 040902-N-5152S-027 Commodore Margarinto Sanchez, Jr., Rear Adm. Charles Kubic and Cmdr. Clayton Mitchell, gather around a sand table in the forward operating base.jpg, a sand table in the forward operating base File:US Army 53265 2LTs complete Leader Forge.jpg, US Army 2LTs complete Leader Forge using a sand table Flickr - The U.S. Army - Patriot Academy students participate in military training.jpg, US Army Patriot Academy students participate in military training using a sand table

Education

A sand table is a device useful for teaching in the early grades and for special needs children.Wagner 1999:80

References and notes

* * * * Taylor, E. B., LL.D (1879), "The History of Games", ''Fortnightly Review republished in The Eclectic Magazine'', New York, W. H. Bidwell, ed., pp. 21–30 *

External links