2,000 year old computer!

Just saw this on the BBC - an amazing level of technology for such a long time ago

The delicate workings at the heart of a 2,000-year-old analogue computer have been revealed by scientists.

The Antikythera Mechanism, discovered more than 100 years ago in a Roman shipwreck, was used by ancient Greeks to display astronomical cycles.

Using advanced imaging techniques, an Anglo-Greek team probed the remaining fragments of the complex geared device.

The results, published in the journal Nature, show it could have been used to predict solar and lunar eclipses.

news.bbc.co.uk...

What an amazing find! Just goes to show what our ancestors were capable of and the fact that civlisation was way more advanced than we realised all those years ago. this is proof that a whole load of knowledge was 'lost' (or maybe hidden?) at some point in time.

The steam engine was created then too! But no one took kit and ran with it. If the Libary of Alexandria had ever survived, we be very advanced, altought WE might not have been born.

Sure we would have been born we just would be far diffrent thain we are now. I think that if the fall of the Roman Empire had never occoured we would be way further allong thain we are now. I think that the Romans were on the verge of discovering electricity before the visigoths sacked Rome.

Does anyone know if it has the sun or earth at the centre of the solar system?

If this is a computer then so is an abacus...

This IS a computer - it uses mechanical movements to arrive at a solution. It's as much of a computer as Babbage's Difference Engine .

The 2,000-year-old computer
Cardiff experts have led an international team in unravelling the secrets of a 2,000-year-old computer which could transform the way we think about the ancient world.

Professor Mike Edmunds of the School of Physics and Astronomy (pictured left) and mathematician Dr Tony Freeth first heard of the Antikythera Mechanism, a clock-like astronomical calculator dating from the second century BC, several years ago. Now they believe they have cracked the centuries-old mystery of how it actually works.

Remnants of a broken wooden and bronze case containing more than 30 gears was found by divers exploring a shipwreck off the island of Antikythera at the turn of the 20th century. Scientists have been trying to reconstruct it ever since. The new research suggests it is more sophisticated than anyone previously thought.

Detailed work on the gears in the mechanism showed it was able to track astronomical movements with remarkable precision. The calculator was able to follow the movements of the moon and the sun through the Zodiac, predict eclipses and even recreate the irregular orbit of the moon. The team believe it may also have predicted the positions of the planets.

www.cardiff.ac.uk...

But hey, what would astronomy and mathematics professors know?




An abacus is clearly different - it's just a substitute for written calculation

It doesn't have either at the center of the Universe. I read about it last night. It was used to calculate planetary movement, solar eclipses, and other time and calander based things. It used a range of grars made from Bronze so it was quite valuable at the time. But the fact that it worked as well as it did, showed a high amount of development. I will try to find the external link- I e-mailed it to myself at work so I could read more about it today. If I find the external link I will post it.

It is like a steam-puter based on a gear mechanism, like a super-ancient gearbox to sync in with Lunar & Solar Eclipses, it's rich in heraldry and super-information, I'm quite chuffed with it, what an useful piece of technology.

It is like a steam-puter based on a gear mechanism

it was a hand cranked analog device