The discovery of the unusually complex wreckage of a 2,000-year-old “computer” has left scientists scratching their heads.
The Antikythera mechanism, a sidereal calendar, was discovered from inside a Greek shipwreck in 1901 and has been dubbed the “first computer” and has amazed researchers ever since.
The watch, a manual time-keeping device, uses a system of wings to track the celestial times of the sun, moon, and planets. It also served as a calendar, recording the phases of the moon and the dates of eclipses. Indy 100 mentioned.
Although it seemed quite obvious, the mechanism was actually more technologically advanced than any tool created over the next thousand years.
Experts at University College London researched the device using 3D computer modeling to help them unravel how it works and show a “genius innovation”.
“We think our reconstruction fits all the evidence that scientists have extracted from the remaining remains so far,” Adam Wojke, a materials scientist at UCLA, said at the time.
According to their theory, where the ancient Greeks believed that the sun and planets revolved around the earth instead of the sun, the device is believed to track the movement of the sun, moon and planets in concentric rings.
“The solution to this intricate three-dimensional puzzle reveals an ingenious creation – combining courses from Babylonian astronomy, mathematics from Plato’s Academy, and ancient Greek astronomical theories,” the researchers said in the journal Scientific Reports.
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