Antikythera Mechanism
Antikythera Mechanism
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-84310-w
New work on modelling how it worked to display the ancient Greek cosmos. It's amazing, of course. Always makes me wonder how many more objects like this there must have been. Few, I should think, but it also seems unlikely it was unique.
New work on modelling how it worked to display the ancient Greek cosmos. It's amazing, of course. Always makes me wonder how many more objects like this there must have been. Few, I should think, but it also seems unlikely it was unique.
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- Catbabel
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Re: Antikythera Mechanism
One of my favourite things.Martin Y wrote: ↑Sat Mar 13, 2021 3:04 pmhttps://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-84310-w
New work on modelling how it worked to display the ancient Greek cosmos. It's amazing, of course. Always makes me wonder how many more objects like this there must have been. Few, I should think, but it also seems unlikely it was unique.
Surely there must have been 'component' mechanisms each doing a part of the action? And 'trials' for each of those, perhaps over a significant number of years? I can't imagine anyone designing the whole thing at one go from scratch, but I can imagine someone combining existing mechanisms.
Re: Antikythera Mechanism
One of the articles I've read about it mentions that the mechanism seems to rely on nested concentric spindles, and the question is how these would be makeable without the use of lathes.Allo V Psycho wrote: ↑Sat Mar 13, 2021 5:57 pmOne of my favourite things.Martin Y wrote: ↑Sat Mar 13, 2021 3:04 pmhttps://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-84310-w
New work on modelling how it worked to display the ancient Greek cosmos. It's amazing, of course. Always makes me wonder how many more objects like this there must have been. Few, I should think, but it also seems unlikely it was unique.
Surely there must have been 'component' mechanisms each doing a part of the action? And 'trials' for each of those, perhaps over a significant number of years? I can't imagine anyone designing the whole thing at one go from scratch, but I can imagine someone combining existing mechanisms.
My avatar was a scientific result that was later found to be 'mistaken' - I rarely claim to be 100% correct
ETA 5/8/20: I've been advised that the result was correct, it was the initial interpretation that needed to be withdrawn
Meta? I'd say so!
ETA 5/8/20: I've been advised that the result was correct, it was the initial interpretation that needed to be withdrawn
Meta? I'd say so!
Re: Antikythera Mechanism
Indeed.Allo V Psycho wrote: ↑Sat Mar 13, 2021 5:57 pmOne of my favourite things.Martin Y wrote: ↑Sat Mar 13, 2021 3:04 pmhttps://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-84310-w
New work on modelling how it worked to display the ancient Greek cosmos. It's amazing, of course. Always makes me wonder how many more objects like this there must have been. Few, I should think, but it also seems unlikely it was unique.
Surely there must have been 'component' mechanisms each doing a part of the action? And 'trials' for each of those, perhaps over a significant number of years? I can't imagine anyone designing the whole thing at one go from scratch, but I can imagine someone combining existing mechanisms.
The first such device just happened to sink in a shipwreck and it looked like a mature technology
Have you considered stupidity as an explanation
- Boustrophedon
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Re: Antikythera Mechanism
"Clickspring" on YouTube has been making a replica Antikythera Mechanism, using the correct period tool, for some time. His videos are here.
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Re: Antikythera Mechanism
It’s not very accurate though, is it?
where once I used to scintillate
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now I sin till ten past three
- Boustrophedon
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Re: Antikythera Mechanism
Hjulet snurrar men hamstern är död.
Re: Antikythera Mechanism
The antikythera mechanism isn’t very accurate in terms of calculating moon cycles and such. According to Exactly anyway.
Simon Winchester writing in Exactly wrote:The device, as model-tested by the legions of fascinated modern analysts, turns out to be woefully, shamefully, uselessly inaccurate. One of the pointers, which supposedly indicates the position of Mars, is on many occasions thirty-eight degrees out of true.
where once I used to scintillate
now I sin till ten past three
now I sin till ten past three
Re: Antikythera Mechanism
Ah. You have the Pentium P5 Antikythera Mechanism sir.Grumble wrote: ↑Sun Mar 14, 2021 12:59 pmThe antikythera mechanism isn’t very accurate in terms of calculating moon cycles and such. According to Exactly anyway.
Simon Winchester writing in Exactly wrote:The device, as model-tested by the legions of fascinated modern analysts, turns out to be woefully, shamefully, uselessly inaccurate. One of the pointers, which supposedly indicates the position of Mars, is on many occasions thirty-eight degrees out of true.
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Re: Antikythera Mechanism
Decoding the Heavens by Jo Marchant is one of the coolest books I've read recently. Really nice blend of ancient history, history of science and modern investigation.
I remember there was a thread on the old place about it, where so many BSers bought a copy that the price spiked on amazon. I wishlisted it way back then, but only just got round to buying a copy.
I remember there was a thread on the old place about it, where so many BSers bought a copy that the price spiked on amazon. I wishlisted it way back then, but only just got round to buying a copy.
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Re: Antikythera Mechanism
I don’t mean to sh.t on the antikythera mechanism by the way, I just want to point out that it was far from a mature technology. I’m sure if they’d had the chance and it hadn’t sunk in a shipwreck they would have iterated and corrected for the problems it had remaining.
where once I used to scintillate
now I sin till ten past three
now I sin till ten past three
Re: Antikythera Mechanism
I’ll have to look into that one.Bird on a Fire wrote: ↑Sun Mar 14, 2021 7:41 pmDecoding the Heavens by Jo Marchant is one of the coolest books I've read recently. Really nice blend of ancient history, history of science and modern investigation.
I remember there was a thread on the old place about it, where so many BSers bought a copy that the price spiked on amazon. I wishlisted it way back then, but only just got round to buying a copy.
where once I used to scintillate
now I sin till ten past three
now I sin till ten past three
Re: Antikythera Mechanism
(available for £3.99 on Google Play)Grumble wrote: ↑Sun Mar 14, 2021 11:41 pmI’ll have to look into that one.Bird on a Fire wrote: ↑Sun Mar 14, 2021 7:41 pmDecoding the Heavens by Jo Marchant is one of the coolest books I've read recently. Really nice blend of ancient history, history of science and modern investigation.
I remember there was a thread on the old place about it, where so many BSers bought a copy that the price spiked on amazon. I wishlisted it way back then, but only just got round to buying a copy.
ETA - also Kindle for the same...
My avatar was a scientific result that was later found to be 'mistaken' - I rarely claim to be 100% correct
ETA 5/8/20: I've been advised that the result was correct, it was the initial interpretation that needed to be withdrawn
Meta? I'd say so!
ETA 5/8/20: I've been advised that the result was correct, it was the initial interpretation that needed to be withdrawn
Meta? I'd say so!
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Re: Antikythera Mechanism
Grumble wrote: ↑Sun Mar 14, 2021 11:41 pmI don’t mean to sh.t on the antikythera mechanism by the way, I just want to point out that it was far from a mature technology. I’m sure if they’d had the chance and it hadn’t sunk in a shipwreck they would have iterated and corrected for the problems it had remaining.
One of the interesting points made in Decoding the Heavens was that the Antikythera mechanism almost certainly wasn't a unique object, artisanally made sure, but one of many mass-produced as luxury items. Marchant makes the case that there was a well-developed technology, probably centred in the eastern Med, which was later expressed in Islamic clockmaking which subsequently spurred on European medieval clockmaking developments. Which is much, much cooler.
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Re: Antikythera Mechanism
Paper by "Clickspring" off YouTube and others on part of the mechanism, as published by the British Horological Institute.
https://bhi.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/20 ... lendar.pdf
https://bhi.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/20 ... lendar.pdf
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Re: Antikythera Mechanism
Videos from Cickspring here. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MkKgdq5 ... lickspring
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Re: Antikythera Mechanism
Well, in terms of the specifics of the astronomical predictions it made, there was a lot to learn in the ensuing thousands of years, of course. Not least the fact that the planets and stars were in a solar system rather than a terran system. The device apparently was based on Babylonian observations of the night sky, something which they did very well for religious reasons and which lots of other later peoples couldn't be arsed to do themselves.Grumble wrote: ↑Sun Mar 14, 2021 11:41 pmI don’t mean to sh.t on the antikythera mechanism by the way, I just want to point out that it was far from a mature technology. I’m sure if they’d had the chance and it hadn’t sunk in a shipwreck they would have iterated and corrected for the problems it had remaining.
But the point about the device isn't whether its astronomical predictions were especially accurate, but about the fact that it was a clockwork device stemming from a time when people thought there were no clockwork devices at all. Until the device was discovered, it was thought that clockwork hadn't been used in Europe until the 11th century. The fact that there was mature clockwork technology in Europe 1000 years earlier, regardless of its accuracy of function, is incredible.
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