Friday, December 10, 2010

Brilliant Piece of Engineering



From:
World's oldest computer recreated in Lego

It's the oldest known computer, a relic dating back 2000 years and rediscovered at the bottom of the ocean. Now designer Andrew Carol has brought it back to life - using Lego.

That's not to say this project was child's play - making the device was an engineering feat that required specialist Lego, and a lot of patience (see stop motion video above).

The idea came from journalist Adam Rutherford who had seen a Babbage Difference Engine built by Carol and got in touch. "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."

The Antikythera mechanism is an astronomical computer thought to have been built in 150BC. It was rediscovered on the Antikythera shipwreck in 1900 and has since astounded researchers by its mechanical complexity. It's been recreated numerous times, but to the best of our knowledge, this is the first time a working replica has been made from Lego. "We recreated a 1st century BC computer out of the best toy humankind has ever invented," Rutherford says.

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