![]() ![]() ![]() Its circular, clock-like face boasted rotating, bejeweled hands that depicted the movement of planetary objects. The design reflected an ancient Greek understanding of the universe, with the Earth at its center, Becky Ferreira reports for Vice.Īs Jo Marchant reported for Smithsonian magazine in 2015, the mechanism was similar in size to a mantel clock and was once housed in a wooden case. The device, discovered off the coast of the Greek island of Antikythera, was once composed of more than 30 interlocking bronze gears that predicted the phases of the moon, eclipses, the dates of the Olympics and the movement of planets and stars. Pictured here is Fragment A, the largest surviving gear in the mechanism, which measures about 5.1 inches in diameter and resides in the National Archaeological Museum in Athens, Greece. ![]() Today, the 2,000-year-old Antikythera Mechanism consists of just 30 surviving bronze gears and is split into 82 fragments. “The Sun, Moon and planets are displayed in an impressive tour de force of ancient Greek brilliance.” “Ours is the first model that conforms to all the physical evidence and matches the descriptions in the scientific inscriptions engraved on the Mechanism itself,” Freeth says in a UCL statement. Writing in the journal Scientific Reports, lead researcher Tony Freeth and his team set forth a solution to the “complex 3-D puzzle” of the mechanism’s design, drawing on “combining cycles from Babylonian astronomy, mathematics from Plato’s Academy and ancient Greek astronomical theories” to propose a plausible scheme for the front of the mechanism. Last week, a team of researchers from the University College London (UCL) proposed a major step forward: a theoretical model for how the front part of the mechanism, which displayed the ancient Greek order of the universe, might have worked. Yet how exactly the mechanism might have worked is still up for debate-especially because the ancient device has only survived in 82 discombobulated, partially disintegrated fragments. ![]() Its stunningly sophisticated design has led many researchers to dub the invention the world’s “first analog computer.” The hand-held device dates back 2,000 years and predicted astronomical events, such as the movement of the planets and lunar and solar eclipses, for its ancient Greek users. First discovered by divers in a Roman-era shipwreck in 1901, researchers have puzzled over the extraordinary Antikythera mechanism for decades. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |