And, in a guiltless act of self-promotion, you may want to explore my Wolfram Demonstration of the Antikythera Mechanism: http://demonstrations.wolfram.com/AntikytheraMechanism/ You can view both the exterior and the internal mechanism, up to and including the entire known arrangement of gears. Detailed information about the demonstration and how it was created is on cp4space: http://cp4space.wordpress.com/2012/09/19/antikythera-mechanism/ Sincerely, Adam P. Goucher

----- Original Message ----- From: Robert Baillie Sent: 11/25/12 04:48 PM To: math-fun Subject: [math-fun] antikythera device: an ancient computer

a while back, someone posted a link to this youtube video of the antikythera device made out of legos: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLPVCJjTNgk

here is an interesting (58 minute) bbc documentary that explains in more detail how the device actually works, as far as we know today: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-rUsgL2VGeU

many of the gears had a prime number of teeth. this was very helpful in figuring out what the device was used for, and how it worked.

here are several shorter videos that might also be of interest: The Antikythera Mechanism - 2D (8 minutes) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UpLcnAIpVRA

The Antikythera Mechanism - 3D (4 minutes) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L1CuR29OajI

Antikythera mechanism working model.mov (4 minutes) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4eUibFQKJqI

in case anyone passes through bozeman, montana, there is a great computer museum that has a replica of the antikythera device. the museum also has an old ibm 1620 computer, a curta calculator, and many other neat old things:  http://www.compustory.com/ note: their rather primitive website doesn't do the place justice!

bob baillie

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