In the passage, ‘The Sand Reckoner” Marcus’s words about needing to disembark contribute to the plot because in paragraph 2 Archimedes is trying to play mathematical games with Marcus, but Marcus is trying to get Archimedes to be serious. He is trying to get Archimedes to understand there’s a war going on and he needs to focus and stop playing games.
Packing the abacus = Facing reality, and seeing that a war is going on, and Syracuse has protected itself. Focusing and attending to the tasks at hand.
