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Although the Angel Falls are much taller than the Niagara Falls, the latter are much wider, and they both pour about the same amount of water over their edges - about 2,8 billion litres (748 million gallons) per second. |
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Mysteries of computer from 65BC are solved
Posted on Monday, March 10, 2008 (CDT) by Thoth
 A 2,000-year-old mechanical computer salvaged from a Roman shipwreck has astounded scientists who have finally unravelled the secrets of how the sophisticated device works. The machine was lost among cargo in 65BC when the ship carrying it sank in 42m of water off the coast of the Greek island of Antikythera. By chance, in 1900, a sponge diver called Elias Stadiatos discovered the wreck and recovered statues and other artifacts from the site.
The machine first came to light when an archaeologist working on the recovered objects noticed that a lump of rock had a gear wheel embedded in it. Closer inspection of material brought up from the stricken ship subsequently revealed 80 pieces of gear wheels, dials, clock-like hands and a wooden and bronze casing bearing ancient Greek inscriptions.
Since its discovery, scientists have been trying to reconstruct the device, which is now known to be an astronomical calendar capable of tracking with remarkable precision the position of the sun, several heavenly bodies and the phases of the moon. Experts believe it to be the earliest-known device to use gear wheels and by far the most sophisticated object to be found from the ancient and medieval periods.
Using modern
computer x-ray tomography and high resolution surface scanning, a team
led by Mike Edmunds and Tony Freeth at Cardiff University peered inside
fragments of the crust-encased mechanism and read the faintest
inscriptions that once covered the outer casing of the machine.
Detailed imaging of the mechanism suggests it dates back to 150-100 BC
and had 37 gear wheels enabling it to follow the movements of the moon
and the sun through the zodiac, predict eclipses and even recreate the
irregular orbit of the moon. The motion, known as the first lunar
anomaly, was developed by the astronomer Hipparcus of Rhodes in the 2nd
century BC, and he may have been consulted in the machine's
construction, the scientists speculate.
Remarkably, scans showed
the device uses a differential gear, which was previously believed to
have been invented in the 16th century. The level of miniaturisation
and complexity of its parts is comparable to that of 18th century
clocks.
Some researchers believe
the machine, known as the Antikythera Mechanism, may have been among
other treasure looted from Rhodes that was en route to Rome for a
celebration staged by Julius Caesar.
One of the remaining
mysteries is why the Greek technology invented for the machine seemed
to disappear. No other civilisation is believed to have created
anything as complex for another 1,000 years. One explanation could be
that bronze was often recycled in the period the device was made, so
many artefacts from that time have long ago been melted down and erased
from the archaelogical record. The fateful sinking of the ship carrying
the Antikythera Mechanism may have inadvertently preserved it. "This
device is extraordinary, the only thing of its kind," said Professor
Edmunds. "The astronomy is exactly right ... in terms of historic and
scarcity value, I have to regard this mechanism as being more valuable
than the Mona Lisa." The research, which appears in the journal Nature
today, was carried out with scientists at the National Archaeological
Museum of Athens where the mechanism is held and the universities of
Athens and Thessaloniki.
Copyright: The Guardian
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Re: Mysteries of computer from 65BC are solved
by ufo1953 on Monday, March 10, 2008 (CDT)
(User Info | Send a Message) | It appears to be some type of early "Astrolabe", as the following Greeks were known to be into such type of Instruments.
Agarthus, a Greek Athenian Artist in 470 BC applied The Concept of Projections on a Plane Surface to the Theory of Perspective.
There is speculation that Apollonis c. 225 BC, studied The Sterographic Projection Base on some Theorems that have Direct Aopplication in The Projection.
Hipparchus (Asia Minorian) in c. 180 BC discovered The Procession of The Equinoxes and was influential in the development of Trigonometry. |
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