"The Antikythera Mechanism, sometimes called the world’s first computer, has now been examined with the latest in high-resolution imaging systems and three-dimensional X-ray tomography. A team of British, Greek and American researchers was able to decipher many inscriptions and reconstruct the gear functions, revealing, they said, “an unexpected degree of technical sophistication for the period.”"
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"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. They established the date of the mechanism at 150-100 B.C.
The Roman ship carrying the artifacts sank off the island of Antikythera around 65 B.C. Some evidence suggests that the ship had sailed from Rhodes. The researchers speculated that Hipparchos, who lived on Rhodes, might have had a hand in designing the device."
Article found via Madison Guy.
2 comments:
I've been reading about this thing. It is amazing. The technical achievemnent of all peoples in the past shows what potential we have.
I wonder how technology would develop or would have developed in a nineteenth to twentieth century world that was not able to make use of coal and oil.
I'm reading Galileo's Daughter right now where Galileo is getting heat for supporting Copernicus' idea of earth orbiting the sun. The fact that the Greeks knew about this in 150 BC is staggering!
Something we need to pay attention to today, where faith is frightened by science and wishes to deny where intelligence will lead us.
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