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Was the Antikythera Mechanism the world’s first computer? (2007)

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Re: Was the Antikythera Mechanism the world’s first computer? (2007)

#41

Post by mirimir »

stan_rogers wrote: post #38
mirimir wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder why he cut gear teeth with a triangular file. As long as he was using a lathe and drill press, I mean. Is it just that gear cutting requires nonstandard machine tools?

He's trying to do at least one example of each type of required task with tools that would have been available at the time. Most of the gears were actually cut with a gear cutter (consisting of an electronic indexer on the headstock of a mini lathe and some Sherline lathe parts mounted on the mini lathe's cross slide, using a homemade 60° D-bit). That has included making (and using) a pump drill with various flywheel…

Thanks. I only spot watched.

Edit: I had no clue that lathes existed But now that I think of it, how else would they have made such ~perfect stone columns.

Re: Was the Antikythera Mechanism the world’s first computer? (2007)

#42

Post by fsloth »

sologoub wrote: post #27

What’s really interesting for me and something I haven’t been able to find good literature on - is how the civilization seems to severely regress into the dark ages after the ancient times. While Rome fell, Byzantium continued on. The state even continued to refer to themselves as Roman. Certain construction items change and have good explanation, such as the Roman concrete - it’s volcanic components were no longer a…

"But how did we manage to lose the knowledge behind the Antikythera device and why was it not recorded?"

The idea that one should share ones inventions is not universal. While other wrote profusely, other ancient sages often guarded their discoveries fairly jealously.

I'm pretty sure lot of pre-20th century discoveries have been discovered several times by various people, but the surrounding society has not benefitted from their knowledge for various reasons.

An excellent example is Leonardo da Vinci. If this question irks you, I warmly suggest you read Isaacson's biography of him.

Leonardo discovered several scientific principles hundreds of years before his time, including Newton's third law, and the fluid dynamic operation of the human hearts aortic valve.

But since he never published anything, references to these were dug out only by latter day historians, and did not benefit his contemporaries.

Re: Was the Antikythera Mechanism the world’s first computer? (2007)

#43

Post by DictumMortuum »

I have visited the old observatory in Athens, Greece. There, along other treasures (e.g. a Tycho Brahe book) there's a replica of the Antikythera mechanism.

Additionally, recently they found some kind of inscription in it [1], which describes the way that it works. What is fascinating to me is that they also fixed a bug with the periodicity of an event and wrote it down. According to the tour guide, this signifies that it was massively produced. I still find it incredibly difficult to create a new gear without modern tools and also fix a 'bug' by creating a new, better gear to replace the old one that approximates an astronomical event with better accuracy.

[1] https://currentepigraphy.org/2008/09/24/inscriptions-on-the-...

Re: Was the Antikythera Mechanism the world’s first computer? (2007)

#44

Post by _Codemonkeyism »

chithanh wrote: post #35
zw123456 wrote: post #32

If it is a computer that predicts astronomical events, seasons etc. as is theorized by some, and if it was built more than 2000 years ago presumably before people understood how the solar system works (I think back then it was not understood that the planets revolve around the Sun) then they must have based the design on a large number of observations recorded over time. If so, then it is also the first application o…

Not quite. Heliocentrism was introduced around 270 BC by a Greek astronomer. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heliocentrism The oldest estimates for the Antikythera Mechanism are 205 BC. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antikythera_mechanism So it is very well possible, if not likely, that the builders of the Antikythera Mechanism were aware of the heliocentric model.

Amazing. Also amazing to me is the caluclation of the size of the moon and distance of the earth from the sun around the same time [1] [2]

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_Sizes_and_Distances_(Ar...

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hipparchus#Distance,_parallax,...

Re: Was the Antikythera Mechanism the world’s first computer? (2007)

#45

Post by _Codemonkeyism »

a.) Amazing

b.) I wish people today would stop thinking people back then war "stupid", people have the same intelligence for the last 10k years and the same thought processes (e.g. when reading Sumerian texts) but not the same tools or knowledge. So someone from old Greece would come up to speed very fast and then make inventions in our time frame based on our knowledge. You could argue with him the same way you can argue with todays scientist.

Re: Was the Antikythera Mechanism the world’s first computer? (2007)

#46

Post by varjag »

mirimir wrote: post #41
stan_rogers wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He's trying to do at least one example of each type of required task with tools that would have been available at the time. Most of the gears were actually cut with a gear cutter (consisting of an electronic indexer on the headstock of a mini lathe and some Sherline lathe parts mounted on the mini lathe's cross slide, using a homemade 60° D-bit). That has included making (and using) a pump drill with various flywheel…

Thanks. I only spot watched. Edit: I had no clue that lathes existed But now that I think of it, how else would they have made such ~perfect stone columns.

Stone columns of antiquity weren't turned on a lathe.

Re: Was the Antikythera Mechanism the world’s first computer? (2007)

#47

Post by varjag »

sologoub wrote: post #27

What’s really interesting for me and something I haven’t been able to find good literature on - is how the civilization seems to severely regress into the dark ages after the ancient times. While Rome fell, Byzantium continued on. The state even continued to refer to themselves as Roman. Certain construction items change and have good explanation, such as the Roman concrete - it’s volcanic components were no longer a…

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_History_of_the_Decline_and...

Re: Was the Antikythera Mechanism the world’s first computer? (2007)

#48

Post by AllegedAlec »

tdons wrote: post #3

YouTube channel of a guy recreating the mechanism: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLZioPDnFPNsHnyxfygxA0...

I love Clickspring. He's basically the single reason I use Patreon.

I have bouts of insomnia, and when I do, I found that listening to either Chris (or Bob Ross) while lying in bed help me tremendously to get calm enough to fall asleep.

Re: Was the Antikythera Mechanism the world’s first computer? (2007)

#49

Post by kungtotte »

WalterGR wrote: post #31
scoot wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“ With LEGO”, rather than “by LEGO”. A remarkable achievement nonetheless, but nothing compared to the original Greek mechanism – the independently acquired celestial knowledge, mathematical ability, and the technical skill required to complete it is mind boggling given the era.

From observing comments here on HN, it’s clear that it’s fairly common for non-native speakers of English to use “by foo” when “with foo” or “from foo” would be more appropriate. From this and the fact that OP wrote “by Legos” and not “by LEGO”, it was simple to deduce that they meant that it was created using little interlocking plastic pieces and not by the company well-known for selling little interlocking plastic…

I don't know about other languages but in Swedish we use the same word ("av") for both "made from" and "made by".

So the confusion is fairly understandable.

Re: Was the Antikythera Mechanism the world’s first computer? (2007)

#50

Post by mirimir »

varjag wrote: post #46
mirimir wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks. I only spot watched. Edit: I had no clue that lathes existed But now that I think of it, how else would they have made such ~perfect stone columns.

Stone columns of antiquity weren't turned on a lathe.

OK, maybe I jumped to an unwarranted conclusion.

So when did builders start turning columns on lathes?

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