Nature editor Adam Rutherford wanted to see how a 2,000-year-old astronomical computation machine–called the Antikythera Mechanism–works. So he set Apple software engineer Andy Carol to the task of building one, using one of the most sophisticated construction systems humanity has ever devised: Lego. It took 30 days and 1,500 Lego Technic parts.
The gear-based machine was discovered in the early 1900s in a wrecked Roman merchant ship. Even after a century of study, it took the invention of CT scans to reconstruct the corroded device’s inner workings and understand how the complex machine operates, explains Nature:
The device … contained more than 30 bronze gearwheels and was covered with Greek inscriptions. On the front was a large circular dial with two concentric scales. One, inscribed with names of the months, was divided into the 365 days of the year; the other, divided into 360 degrees, was marked with the 12 signs of the zodiac.
It is the oldest known computing device, aka “computer.” In 2008 researchers discovered that the ancient Greeks used the device to not only calculate when eclipses would happen, but also to set the schedule for the Olympic Games.
“I asked him if he’d heard of the mechanism, and if he thought it was doable in Lego,” says Rutherford. “A few weeks later, he sent me some pictures of a demo version he’d knocked up. It was stunning.”
An in-depth explanation of the math and engineering behind this toy computer can be found on Carol’s blog. The solar eclipses can be predicted because they occur on a regular pattern, he explains:
The ancients observed that eclipses appeared to follow a cycle of 18 years, 11 days, and 8 hours. If there was an eclipse of the sun at 10am on a certain date, then there was a very good chance there would be a similar eclipse on a date 18 years and 11 days in the future at 6pm (8 hours later in the day). Three such cycles would mean that a similar eclipse was probable 54 years and 34 days in the future at about the same time of day as the original eclipse.
Writer and filmmaker John Pavlus was on hand to document the eclipse-predicting lego machine (in the video above); he describes the intricate animation process needed to make the video happen in a blog post. There is also a stop-motion video of the animation process:
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Video: YouTube / NatureVideoChannel