Lego Antikythera

This is just too cool not to reblog.

In 1901, the world’s first known analog computer was recovered from a Greek shipwreck. It wasn’t until 2006 that scientists realized what it actually was. I remember the shock waves that epiphany created.

Here’s the real shocker– this computer was created about 80 B.C., more than two thousand years ago.

Known as the Antikythera Mechanism, it predicts astronomical events and is proof that some people believed that the planets revolved around the sun decades before Christ.

Reconstructions, 3D views, and x-rays of the Antikythera Mechanism already appear on YouTube. But Ian O’Neill of Discovery.com has posted a fascinating video of this device recreated from Legos!

http://news.discovery.com/space/the-antikythera-mechanism-built-with-lego.html

Michael Wright’s more true-to-life model is at:

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