APOD: Antikythera Mechanism (2006 Dec 05)

[Galactic Groove]

So, to predict stellar movements, he/she had to know how fast to turn the knobs on this machine . fascinating !

I would assume they knew very well the movement of the moon. If they had all the other gear ratios for the planets figured out, i bet they would use the moon's position as a "most probable" placement marker for succeeding days.

[neufer]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLPVCJjTNgk#![/youtube]

[JohnD]

Gosh, Art, that's one of your best 'Net mining trophys!

Now, can anyone explain why it takes so many Lego gears (five times?) as the Antikythera box to do the same job?
My guess - because the AK was purpose-built, and the Lego device uses standard gears.

John

[bystander]

http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/nstv/ ... -lego.html
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn1 ... o-lab.html
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/disco ... t-of-lego/
http://www.universetoday.com/81660/anci ... t-in-lego/
http://arstechnica.com/science/news/201 ... r-with.ars

http://acarol.woz.org/

[neufer]

Gosh, Art, that's one of your best 'Net mining trophys!

<<In October 1900, a team of sponge divers led by Captain Dimitrios Kondos had decided to wait out a severe storm hampering their sail back from Africa on the island of Antikythera, and they began diving for sponges off the island's coastline. In 1900, divers usually wore standard diving dresses — canvas suits and copper helmets — which allowed them to dive deeper and to stay submerged longer.

The first to lay eyes on the shipwreck 60 metres down was Elias Stadiatos, who quickly signaled to be pulled to the surface. He described the scene as a heap of rotting corpses and horses lying on the sea bed. Thinking the diver had gone mad from too much carbon dioxide in his helmet, Kondos himself dove into the water, soon returning with a bronze arm of a statue. Until they could safely leave the island, the divers dislodged as many small artifacts as they could carry.

Together with the Greek Education Ministry and Hellenic Navy, the sponge divers salvaged numerous artifacts from the waters. By the end of 1902, divers had recovered statues of a philosopher's head, a young boy, a discus thrower, the bronze Antikythera Ephebe of ca. 340 BC (now in the National Archaeological Museum of Athens), a Hercules, a marble bull and a bronze lyre. Many other small and common artifacts were also found. On 17 May 1902, however, archaeologist Valerios Stais made the most celebrated find. When diving to search the area of the wreck, he noticed that one of the pieces of rock near him had a gear wheel embedded in it. It would soon be identified as the Antikythera mechanism; originally thought to be one of the first forms of a mechanised clock, it is now considered to be the world’s oldest known analog computer. The death of several divers from decompression sickness put an end to work at the site.>>

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Now, can anyone explain why it takes so many Lego gears (five times?) as the Antikythera box to do the same job?
My guess - because the AK was purpose-built, and the Lego device uses standard gears.

13 classic Lego gears + a Lego worm gear

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[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L1CuR29OajI&[/youtube]

[owlice]

What an elegant video! Thanks for posting it, neufer.