A replica of the Antikythera Mechanism, a stunningly complex 2,100-year-old celestial computer.
Credit: The Antikythera Mechanism Research Project
PARIS: A 2,100-year-old clockwork machine whose remains were retrieved from a shipwreck more than a century ago has turned out to be the celestial super-computer of the ancient world.
Using 21st-century technology to peer beneath the surface of the encrusted gearwheels, stunned scientists say the so-called Antikythera Mechanism could predict the ballet of the Sun and Moon over decades and calculate a lunar anomaly that would bedevil Isaac Newton himself.
Built in Greece around 150 to 100 BC and possibly linked to the astronomer and mathematician Hipparchos, its complexity was probably unrivalled for at least a thousand years, they say.
"It's beautifully designed. Your jaw drops when you work out what they did and what they put into this," said astronomer Mike Edmunds of Cardiff University in Wales. "It implies the Greeks had great technical sophistication."
The Antikythera Mechanism is named after its place of discovery, where Greek divers, exploring a Roman shipwreck at a depth of 42 metres in 1901, came across 82 curious bronze fragments.
At first, these pieces, thickly encrusted and jammed together after lying more two millennia on the sea floor, lay forgotten. But a closer look showed them to be exquisitely made, hand-cut, toothed gearwheels.
It was clear that, within this find, 29 gearwheels fitted together, possibly making some sort of astronomical calendar. But of what, exactly? For a quarter of a century, the textbook on the strange find was a work written by a historian of science and technology, Derek de Solla Price.
He hypothesised that the Mechanism in fact had 31 gearwheels, and did something pretty astonishing - it linked the solar year with a 19-year cycle in the phases of the Moon. This is the so-called Metonic cycle, which takes the Moon 235 lunar months to the same phase on the same date in the year.
Edmunds' team, gathering experts from Britain, Greece and the United States, has now taken the tale several chapters forward.
In a paper published today in the British journal Nature, they describe how they used three-dimensional X-ray computation tomography and high-resolution surface imaging to peek beneath the Mechanism's surface without damaging the priceless artefact.
2100 year old clockwork computer
I happened to have stumbled upon this page, and read what it entails. I find it fascinating to be able to recover such precious artifacts from the depths of the earth, clean them up, and make them work again. Not only is it precise, it's complex, it looks large, and it's useful. It is beautiful and not only do I thank the scientists who were able to preserve such a find, but also commend them for recovering something as note worthy as this.
-s.
They made a new one using the original as a pattern.
It was not the original to made to work again.
It remains encased in it's
It remains encased in it's encrusted state, so is not working. Computer models were probably used to determine the precise ratios at which it worked and thus discover it's suspected purpose.
Sarah Jean ??
Gawd you are such a dope.
Makes you question a lot of things
For centuries we have been trying to prove how smart we are, when in fact, we should have been looking to our ancestors for help.
Money makes the workd go round...
Well it seems that not only the Hellenic world knew that the earth was round and moving around the sun, but they knew the exact rotation of the moon and maybe planets and stars.
When Galileo figured out that the earth was moving defending heliocentrism, he was accused of heresy against the holy scriptures and was ordered imprisoned.
But it wasnt the church's fault... They just went by the book:
Christian biblical references
Psalm 93:1, Psalm 96:10, and 1 Chronicles 16:30
include text stating that "the world is firmly established, it cannot be moved."
In the same tradition, Psalm 104:5 says,
"the LORD set the earth on its foundations; it can never be moved."
Further, Ecclesiastes 1:5
states that "And the sun rises and sets and returns to its place, etc."
Unlike the Hellenic world, it seems that some other cultures in those ages either didnt beleive scientific facts or ignored the truth.
Should Galileo be accused of heresy towards the church or should the church be accused of heresy towards the truth?
On 31 October 1992, Pope John Paul II expressed regret for how the Galileo affair was handled, and officially conceded that the Earth was not stationary, as the result of a study conducted by the Pontifical Council for Culture.
Wow, from 1616 to 1992... Yes they had a great amount of time to rethink about the issue.
antikytheran computer
the church went to great lengths to bury and destroy any knowledge, discoveries, teachings and writings that contradicted the image or written word of their corrupted institution. who will ever know how far they set the world back by burning or destroying any accounts or discoveries of the time which threatened their idea of the world and it s events. one would think god would be in favor of expanding our mind and knowledge, not suppressing it and persecuting the couriers of progress.
The biblical references are
The biblical references are useless, because the biblical writers never intended to explain any natural phenomena, like the movement of celestial bodies. At most, they show what lookers on earth would notice, that the "earth is firmly established" and that the sun "rises and sets", expressions that we still use today.
It is a shame to blame the bible for what the church did, in fact, the church tried desperately to prevent people from being able to read the scriptures, maybe one or two history lessons will help.
On the subject matter (on the article) the mechanism is really impressive, and it proves that ancient people were as (or more) smart as we are today, and it speaks lots against the evolution crap, in fact, when one revisits history, the logical conclusion is that mankind is "de-volutioning".
Your ignorance is astounding...
I don't work hard enough to call myself a Christian scholar, but I do have a much more profound understanding of the bible than "the church" brought up in your arguments (presumably the Catholic church). I would take time to elaborate how the modern church is nothing but a shrine for the worship of man, and is no different than a "church of atheism", but for the purpose of my argument... let's just say most modern beliefs are not based on the bible.
That being said, those scriptures you pointed out do not, in any way, refer to the astrological ordering of the Earth and Sun as geocentric. The first scriptures referring to the Earth were used as metaphors for the NATURE of the Earth as a whole. To elaborate, the phrase "the world is firmly established, it cannot be moved" refers to the greater reality being unchangeable (i.e. the law of gravity, animals' need for water, water being the liquid form of H20). That statement uses "the world" loosely as a substitute for "reality" because the people of the bible's time only knew of the world around them and not much else. The other piece of scripture about the sun is just the status quo again. It does not imply the sun is immobile in space unless it is "rising" or "setting". It is simply a metaphor whose meaning is closer to (if you will pardon the expression) "it is what it is". Further, how could you argue otherwise for such a simple statement considering even in modern times; we still refer to our terrestrial view of the sun's "movement" over our spinning rock as the rising and setting of the sun.
Having said all of that, I would still agree that the lengths in which the greater "church" went during those ages mentioned by you and others on this page are unacceptable and inspired by fear of the loss of power rather than CHRISTIANITY. I don't understand how some of you people can equate the spiritual beliefs of all Christians in the world as doorways to ignorance. The bible is the Christian codex for wisdom and spirituality; it is not a damned science textbook. I wish more people of science were not so bigoted and disdainful of something they have very little understanding of.
Your Ignorance is astounding
Christians burn and imprison scientists, and when they protest, why they're ignorant bigots who have little understanding of scripture which the Christians now excuse themselves as not understanding then either.
You just keep excusing yourselves for your crimes, as any other religion. And that's your real religion. It will be a great day when people realize faith=criminal.