The Antikythera Mechanism in motion
The continuing mysteries of the world's oldest computer.
With a recent BBC Four documentary (available at time of writing), an article in the Guardian and a best of the web feature on the Ri Channel, the Antikythera Mechanism has been receiving a bit of attention over the last couple of months – and rightly so.
The Antikythera Mechanism is an ancient scientific computer, designed to calculate astronomical positions and lunar events with unprecedented accuracy. Estimated to have been built sometime between 150–100 BCE it is considered to be the oldest known complex scientific calculator.
The machine is thought to have calculated the position of the moon and the sun (or other astronomical objects such as the planets) after the user inputted the date using a hand operated crank. However it was lost to sea and only recovered by chance in 1901, amongst the wreckage of a ship just off the Greek island of Antikythera (hence the name).
These videos from Nature provide an overview of the mechanism and the work being done to unlock its secrets:
It is only recently that scientists have been able to peer inside and uncover the true function and operation of this machine. Using sophisticated imaging techniques such as X-Ray computed tomography, researchers have been able to gather comprehensive 3D models of the machine's internal structure, providing clues towards the way it worked.
These beautiful videos demonstrate some of the imaging work being done:
Using this data, scientists have been able to more accurately reconstruct the Antyketherya Mechanism though computer animation in an attempt to recapture the mechanism in working order. This 3D animation below demonstrates how the mechanism might have worked:
Finally just for fun, Nature producer Adam Rutherford created a short film re-capturing the Antikythera Mechanism in a wonderfully nerdy fashion – in Lego (also featured here on the Ri Channel):
Know of any other great Antikythera Mechanism resources? - Post them in the comment section below!