Antikythera Mechanism

joshh · Post by **joshh** » Sun Mar 31, 2013 1:12 am

There is a show about it called "Ancient Computer". If you haven't heard of this, it's really neat and worth a look.

It was built by the greeks over 2000 years ago and is a complex series of gears used for astronomy. I learned about it in a link from an imaging publication because they used a CT scanner to fully assess it.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/29/scien ... epage&_r=0

The gear teeth were in the form of equilateral triangles with an average circular pitch of 1.6 mm, an average wheel thickness of 1.4 mm and an average air gap between gears of 1.2 mm.

Remember this was made over 2000 years ago

skou · Post by **skou** » Sun Mar 31, 2013 4:39 am

Sorry to hijack this post, but did you all know, (thanks to the present administration) our Astronauts have to hitch a ride on RUSSIAN rockets?

That hasn't happened since Mercury. (1961.)

We have NO outer space capability, any more.

NONE!

steve

joshh · Post by **joshh** » Sun Mar 31, 2013 6:04 am

It is a shame we hitch rides to the ISS. There is plenty of misappropriated government funds that they could have found the money to keep it going. They did a cost analysis and decided it was better / cheaper (I do not agree with that analysis)to have companies like Virgin Galactic develop low earth orbit shuttles. In the meantime, you are completely right. Big gap in our space program at the moment.

I did find a list if current missions, most if which I didn't know about.

http://www.nasa.gov/missions/current/

davebodner · Post by **davebodner** » Sun Mar 31, 2013 9:42 am

...and back to our regularly scheduled programming...

I'm fascinated by that contraption, even though I've done very little reading about it. I'd like to know how it fits into the technological context of the era. For example, were there other small gear-driven devices? It seems so unlikely that this device would've arisen without other, similar, devices already in existence.

donalexander · Post by **donalexander** » Sun Mar 31, 2013 12:56 pm

The Greek mechanism that is, not the political discussion.

If you've got a bandsaw or a scroll saw, and some type of strip sander (or more patience than Job, the sanding can be done by hand) you can try making your own Celestial Mechanic Calendar and Orrery. Plans are available here http://www.lisaboyer.com/Claytonsite/ce ... alpage.htm

I am not affiliated or related to the purveyor of the plans other than I ordered a set of clock plans from him last year. I thought the whole thing was fascinating and the Orrery is on my todo list. Its interesting to see the Greeks figured a lot of this out first. But its more interesting to know we can make these ourselves with our tooling.

moose · Post by **moose** » Wed Apr 03, 2013 11:11 pm

JoshH: In response to your interest in the Antikythera Mechanism, PBS (NOVA) presented a one hour positively fascinating piece of programing devoted to this thing. If interested, you might be able to download a replay at PBS.

frank81 · Post by **frank81** » Thu Apr 04, 2013 10:22 am

ashbury wrote:JoshH: In response to your interest in the Antikythera Mechanism, PBS (NOVA) presented a one hour positively fascinating piece of programing devoted to this thing. If interested, you might be able to download a replay at PBS.

And if you feel like getting your tin foil hat out, they talk about this and similar objects on Ancient Aliens on History a lot.

terrydowning · Post by **terrydowning** » Thu Apr 04, 2013 10:59 am

What's wrong with "Aluminum Foil" hats???

I have never actually seen "Tin" foil.

Everyone knows that aluminum is much better shielding from those mind probes anyway. Kinda like a Faraday cage for your brain.

Ed in Tampa · Post by **Ed in Tampa** » Thu Apr 04, 2013 11:10 am

skou wrote:Sorry to hijack this post, but did you all know, (thanks to the present administration) our Astronauts have to hitch a ride on RUSSIAN rockets?

That hasn't happened since Mercury. (1961.)

We have NO outer space capability, any more.

NONE!

steve

Don't say we have no outer space capability around Cape Canaveral ran by the US Air Force. Yes NASA at Cape Kennedy is more or less shut down but the Air Force launches from Cape Canaveral fairly regularily and their missiles go into outer space.

They have a May 8 launch of Delta 4 and May 15 launch of an Atlas 5 scheduled. Check out http://www.spacecoastlaunches.com/

But I will say I would love to have the money shoot into space over the past 30 years to help pay for the deficit. I really don't care if there was ever water on Mars nor do I care what is on the moon.

dusty · Post by **dusty** » Thu Apr 04, 2013 11:19 am

Ed in Tampa wrote:Don't say we have no outer space capability around Cape Canaveral ran by the US Air Force. Yes NASA at Cape Kennedy is more or less shut down but the Air Force launches from Cape Canaveral fairly regularily and their missiles go into outer space.

They have a May 8 launch of Delta 4 and May 15 launch of an Atlas 5 scheduled. Check out http://www.spacecoastlaunches.com/

But I will say I would love to have the money shoot into space over the past 30 years to help pay for the deficit. I really don't care if there was ever water on Mars nor do I care what is on the moon.

And because you don't care.....???

Shopsmith Forums