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.

Comments

You promote LEGO? You must die, infidel swine!

[Anonymous Coward]

You have failed to show proper respect for Allah and his prophet, by supporting the infidel toy manufacturer LEGO, situated in the heretic nation of Denmark, which houses the heretic infidel newspaper Jyllands-Posten, which published cartoons implying Islam is a violent faith!

Therefore, you must all be slaughtered like cows!

Toys for infidels

[raju1kabir]

I have burned down all my Legos in protest against the blasphemous cartoons published by Danish newspapers last year. Also I have denounced the little Lego people, and will be stoning the larger ones (with the bendy arms) on Friday.