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LEGO Tech Still Going Strong
zimage writes to tell us that Andrew Carol has designed and built a working Babbage Difference Engine out of LEGO. From the article: "Before the day of computers and pocket calculators, all mathematics was done by hand. Great effort was expended to compose trigonometric and logarithmic tables for navigation, scientific investigation, and engineering purposes. In the mid-19th century, people began to design machines to automate this error prone process. Many machines of various designs were eventually built. The most famous of these machines is the Babbage Difference Engine. [...] Babbage's design could evaluate 7th order polynomials to 31 digits of accuracy. I set out to build a working Difference Engine using LEGO parts which could compute 2nd or 3rd order polynomials to 3 or 4 digits." In related, but not quite as functional, news DigitalDame2 writes to tell us that PC Magazine has an interview with LEGO "brick-artist" Nathan Sawaya, creator of their commissioned LEGO PC. There are also several pictures of the creation in addition to a contest to win the snap-together sculpture.
That is one thing that pisses me off. people dont realise that lego is a brand, not an objectt. it is refered to as "Pieces of lego" not Legos :P
:)
As for lego technology though i cant wait for the new Lego inteligent brick to come out. The NXT looks like a sexy piece of robotics and a big improvement to the RCX
This ranks up there with certain folk refering to the slang term for Mathematics as 'Math', when it is infact 'Maths'
Since when is slang supposed to follow rules of grammar and usage?
If people use "math" as an informal shorthand for "mathematics" then that's the term, any individual with a grammar lexicon reposited in a painful location nonwidthstanding.
Trust the Computer. The Computer is your friend.
Logarithms, invented by John Napier born 1550. Henry Briggs, another British mathematician published a table of logarithms to 14 places of numbers from 1 to 20,000 and from 90,000 to 100,000 in 1624.
c s/logarithm_hist.htm
http://www.thocp.net/reference/sciences/mathemati
So enlighten me, what sort of computer was he using?
It also seems to me that the image of the company is what's going to detract attention from any serious accomplishments.
I haven't read the Wired article, but IMO Lego is uniquely positioned to revolutionize robotics *because* they're a toy company. With their Technic and Mindstorms ranges, Lego can get kids interested in engineering and robotics at the right age (8-12). Lego certainly contributed to my becoming an engineer.
The problem with this strategy is getting kids interested in actually building something, rather than vegetating in front of the TV or chatting on the computer.
Too bad Babbage didn't have legos when he was trying to get funding to build his computer!
Well, the design made out of Legos is far far simpler than Babbages machine, so obviously easier to produce. Difference Engine 2 was supposed to calculate 7th order polynomials to 31 digits of accuracy. The lego contraption can only calculate 2nd or 3rd order polynomials to 3 or 4 digits of accuracy.
Had Babbage been interested in actually producing these machines rather than designing them and finding out what's possible I'd bet he would have done something like this machine first as a "proof of concept", and then sought more funding. After all, if you can make this thing out of legos I'm sure it'd be fairly trivial to make it out of metal gears. Babbage was a mathematician though and not a business man or engineer so he wasn't really that interested in actually making the thing.
It makes you wonder what would have happened had someone figured out a business use for Babbages machine, and made some kind of deal with him to design a more practical calculating device. I think that's even the subject of a sci-fi book called "The Difference Engine".
AccountKiller
You seen any recent Lego kits?
10 years ago, your average Technic kit consisted of a few hundred brightly-coloured blocks which were fairly generic, maybe one or two unusual pieces, and they all fitted together in more-or-less the same way. You could even fit them to traditional lego bricks.
I was given two kits for Christmas 2004. The first consisted entirely of beams which were smooth top and bottom and had to be fitted together with axles. Not very useful in conjunction with the old parts. The second consisted of bricks in about 6 or 7 different colours, all similar shades, and almost impossible to tell one shade from another in the printed instructions. None of the colours were the traditional Lego bright primary colours. Which was a bit of a bugger if you wanted to build the robot the included instructions covered as the whole look was ruined if you got the colours wrong.
I later discovered that these two kits were close to the top of the Technic range and the range itself had narrowed to no more than about half a dozen or so kits available in your average toyshop.
Cause of Lego financial difficulties or result?