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Author Topic: Babbage Difference Engine & Antikythera Device - in LEGO!!!  (Read 3136 times)

JennyB

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Having always loved complex mechanical devices, and never having fully outgrown LEGO, I decided to explore where computational mechanics and LEGO meet. This is not LEGO as toy, art, or even the MindStorms® fusion of LEGO and digital electronics. This is almost where Steampunk and LEGO meet. Hand cranked devices that perform complex mechanical tasks.


The Antikythera Mechanism, based on an original from 150 B.C.E., predicts solar eclipses.
The Difference Engine model can compute 3rd order polynomials.  8)

Found via Zoe Brain - my kind of geek!  :Thmbsup:
If you don't see how it can fail -
you haven't understood it properly.
« Last Edit: March 30, 2011, 10:36 PM by mouser, Reason: fixed broken link »

Deozaan

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Re: Babbage Difference Engine & Antikythera Device - in LEGO!!!
« Reply #1 on: March 30, 2011, 05:00 PM »
Cool stuff. Your first link needs an L at the end of htm for it to work. :Thmbsup:

40hz

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Re: Babbage Difference Engine & Antikythera Device - in LEGO!!!
« Reply #2 on: March 30, 2011, 06:15 PM »
Very cool. Also thanks for the link to A.E. Brain's blogsite.  :Thmbsup:

Bookmarked it for a more leisurely perusal later on.  Which (for me) is a pretty rare thing.  :)