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A Lego Replica of the Antikythera Mechanism

Posted by timothy on from the hard-to-get-enough-antikythera dept.

vbraga writes "The Antikythera Mechanism is the oldest known scientific computer, built in Greece at around 100 BCE. Lost for 2000 years, it was recovered from a shipwreck in 1901. But not until a century later was its purpose understood: an astronomical clock that determines the positions of celestial bodies with extraordinary precision. In 2010, a fully-functional replica out of Lego (YouTube video) was built."

6 of 74 comments (clear)

  1. I must have this!! by erroneus · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I need a parts list and build instructions. Anyone know if they did this? All we got was a Youtube video...

  2. See "The Making of" too by wiredlogic · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Not to be missed is the time lapse video of the process of creating the video which was as fascinating as the model itself.

    --
    I am becoming gerund, destroyer of verbs.
  3. my scientific observation by Tumbleweed · · Score: 4, Interesting

    "A device is not truly understood until its function can be duplicated by Legos."
    - Tumbleweed's Observation

  4. More Information by breser · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Built by Andrew Carol who is an engineer for Apple.
    He had a website about his building complex lego machines at: http://acarol.woz.org/
    And specifically information about this one at: http://acarol.woz.org/antikythera_mechanism.html

    Unfortunately, the site seems to be down but Google still has a good cache:
    http://google.com/search?q=cache:acarol.woz.org/antikythera_mechanism.html
    http://google.com/search?q=cache:acarol.woz.org/acarol.woz.org

  5. Antikythera Reconstruction ? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    This has as much to do with the Antikythera mechanism as a software simulation. The mechanism has no differential gears, which are used on this lego construct because its creator played with them during his experiments with Babbage's Difference Engine. The beauty of the Antikythera machine lies in its pin-and-slot mechanism for modelling epicyclic trajectories which are of course nowhere to be found in this "reconstruction".

  6. Re:As opposed to by AHuxley · · Score: 3, Interesting

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berlin_Gold_Hat ~ bronze age pda (personal duration assistant?) meets lunisolar calendar meets bling sun cult headdress?

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    Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"