Spools — which thread runs longest?

Spools is a little guessing game with thread. A row of wooden spools stands on the table, each one wound with a different thread: fine silk, quilting cotton, pearl cotton, wool yarn or satin ribbon. One of them holds the longest thread. Which one? The big fat spool, or the slim one wound with a hair-thin thread? Your eyes will tell you one thing, and the thread another.

How to play

Vote for the spool you think holds the longest thread: tap it, and change your mind as often as you like until the race starts. Then press Race: after a slow 3, 2, 1, every thread unwinds at the same realistic speed (about as fast as you would pull it by hand) and falls in soft loops onto the table, the spools spin faster and faster as they empty, and the last one still spinning wins. You can also drag to pull a thread yourself, or fling it and watch the spool whirl on its own. At the end you see every length and thickness. Tap for new spools. Choose sewing thread, floss, yarn, ribbon or a mix, from two to five spools, a walnut, felt or slate table, and Close for spools that are nearly the same.

Why it's satisfying

A thread half as thick fits four times as much length in the same space, so a slim spool can hide far more than a fat one. The race is the best part: the counters climb side by side, the short ones run out with a little whip of thread, and the last spool keeps whirring alone while the piles of loops grow on the table.

About

Spools is part of Alcy, fifty-three free contemplative micro-games in your browser. For more spinning and guessing: Pottery, Balance, Last Marble.