[Ansteorra] Antikythera Mechanism meets LEGO - Creative Anachronism at its fines
Hillary Greenslade
hillaryrg at yahoo.com
Fri Dec 17 08:45:47 PST 2010
Had to forward this post for all you mechanical and scientific geeks to check
out.
Posted originally on the Medieval-Trivia yahoo site.
Enjoy, Hillary
----- Forwarded Message ----
1.
Antikythera Mechanism meets LEGO - Creative Anachronism at its fines
Posted by: "Toi Fiore by way of Shane B" shaneb at ij.net shane1bb
Thu Dec 16, 2010 10:08 am (PST)
That's amazing! Never underestimate our forefathers/ mothers on this earth...
But SCAdians already knew that, right?
Toi Poisson de Mortagne
http://www.pcworld. com/article/ 213249/Ancient_ Greek_Computer_ Gets_Rebuilt_
Using_Lego. html?tk=out
Ancient Greek Computer Gets Rebuilt Using Lego
By <http://www.pcworld. com/article/ 213249//author/ Jason Kennedy>Jason
Kennedy, <http://www.pcworld. com/>PCWorld Dec 10, 2010 2:24 pm
[]
2000 years ago the Greeks built a device designed to calculate the motion of
celestial bodies, a computer now called the Antikythera mechanism. Lost for
centuries at the bottom of the ocean, it was pulled up in 1901 and has baffled
scientists until recently. This year, designer Andrew Carol built the first
working copy of the
computer out of Lego bricks, the
<http://www.newscien tist.com/ blogs/nstv/ 2010/12/worlds- oldest-computer-
recreated- in-lego.html? DCMP=OTC- rss&nsref= online-news>New
Scientist reports.
The Antikythera mechanism is ridiculously complex for what is arguably the first
computer ever built. The sequence of intricate gears can accurately display
eclipses of heavenly bodies, and the LEGO replica works just as the original did
(as best as we can figure, since it was a wood and gears machine lying
underwater for
centuries). High resolution X-ray tomography (which is imaging by sectioning
through the use of any kind of penetrating wave) was used in the determination
of the machine's function.
The skill and understanding of the cosmos required to build something this
complex never fails to astound me. It seems a worthy tribute to that ingenuity
to replicate in every detail such a wonder out of LEGO, the building blocks of
awesome. It was built with
<http://technic. lego.com/ en-us/Default. aspx>
LEGO Technic parts, and I'll be honest: I don't remember building anything as
sophisticated
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