Greek Gearheads
November 29, 2006
Researchers have started to make progress in reverse-engineering the so-called Antikythera Mechanism, an ancient Greek "computer" from 150 BC:
...
They said their findings showed that the inscriptions related to lunar-solar motions and the gears were a mechanical representation of the irregularities of the Moon’s orbital course across the sky, as theorized by the astronomer Hipparchos.
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Historians of technology think the instrument is technically more complex than any known device for at least a millennium afterward.
> Nature, Decoding the ancient Greek astronomical calculator known as the Antikythera Mechanism
File under: Informatics
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