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Ancient calculator was 1,000 yrs ahead of its time
Reuters ^
| 11/28/06
| Reuters
Posted on 11/29/2006 11:17:09 AM PST by freedom44
click here to read article
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To: camle
textbooks refer to babbage's differential machine, or even the eniac as the world's first computer. When I beg to differ, I cite the Antekythera (or however ya spell ti) mechanism. opens a few eyes as to just how smart we really can be.
ENIAC and Babbage's analytic engine (quite different from his differential engine) were programmable. Antikythera is not.
To: longtermmemmory
It was during the Dark Ages that Islam was concocted and conquered most of the ancient world.
22
posted on
11/29/2006 11:32:01 AM PST
by
justshutupandtakeit
(If you believe ANYTHING in the Treason Media you are a fool.)
To: YOUGOTIT
exactly, and coin operated fortune telling machines, and mechanical singing birds...
the lesson here is that all this technology was lost (Galen did eye and brain surgery in ancient Rome, for example) when civilization appeases barbarians instead of agressively fighting them. Even Rome's high level of sophistication couldn't save it in the end.
and the world lost - a thousand years of darkness because of a losing strategy.
23
posted on
11/29/2006 11:32:56 AM PST
by
camle
(keep your mind open and somebody will fill it full of something for you)
To: Vicomte13
This article mentions they accounted for the ELIPTICAL ORBIT OF THE MOON!
This beats Kepler!
It just adds to the fact that the arab world pretty much was a middle man book seller and not much more than that.
24
posted on
11/29/2006 11:33:11 AM PST
by
longtermmemmory
(VOTE! http://www.senate.gov and http://www.house.gov)
To: camle
the roman coleseum had a water powered organ, for example. Hey, I got one of those.
25
posted on
11/29/2006 11:34:03 AM PST
by
N. Theknow
((Kennedys - Can't drive, can't fly, can't ski, can't skipper a boat - But they know what's best.))
To: Vroomfondel
you make a point, but the AK's programmign is in it's very design - like a telephone - you can't program it, it's design is it's program - a single purpose unit.
26
posted on
11/29/2006 11:35:34 AM PST
by
camle
(keep your mind open and somebody will fill it full of something for you)
To: freedom44
It would be nice if someone with the resources, a university, perhaps, would build a working device from the original.
27
posted on
11/29/2006 11:35:45 AM PST
by
ThanhPhero
(di hanh huong den La Vang)
To: N. Theknow
LOL~!
I fgured that computer museum's would have model kits of the AK, but so far they don't seem to. I'd love to show one to my students in real life.
28
posted on
11/29/2006 11:36:31 AM PST
by
camle
(keep your mind open and somebody will fill it full of something for you)
To: longtermmemmory
It is actually quite stagering how much knowlege was delayed due to the dark ages. Imagine where we would be if we did not lose those 1000 years or so. Those years weren't lost. Plenty of good work was done during that time. It was during the Middle Ages that the church invented, for all practical purposes, the modern university.
29
posted on
11/29/2006 11:36:43 AM PST
by
Oberon
(What does it take to make government shrink?)
To: tje
RPN?Reverse Phoenician Notation?
30
posted on
11/29/2006 11:37:48 AM PST
by
Fresh Wind
(Democrats are guilty of whatever they scream the loudest about.)
To: longtermmemmory
Imagine where we would be if we did not lose those 1000 years or so.We're about to lose another 1000...
31
posted on
11/29/2006 11:39:18 AM PST
by
johnny7
("We took a hell of a beating." -'Vinegar Joe' Stilwell)
To: Oberon
Very true!
(however if you ask some arabs, I believe there is a "continuously in use" arab university in morroco. 600- 500 or so years. It is note worthy because it used Adobe in its constructions I believe. I hear they might finally be updating the classes after all these centuries)
32
posted on
11/29/2006 11:40:38 AM PST
by
longtermmemmory
(VOTE! http://www.senate.gov and http://www.house.gov)
To: freedom44
Wikipedia's page on it can be found ...
here.
33
posted on
11/29/2006 11:41:37 AM PST
by
The G Man
(The NY Times did "great harm to the United States" - President George W. Bush 6/26/06)
To: The G Man
It has a differential gear arrangement with over 30 gears, with teeth formed through equilateral triangles. When past or future dates were entered via a crank (now lost), the mechanism calculated the position of the Sun, Moon or other astronomical information such as the location of other planets. The use of differential gears enabled the mechanism to add or subtract angular velocities. The differential was used to compute the synodic lunar cycle by subtracting the effects of the sun's movement from those of the sidereal lunar movement.Interesting.
34
posted on
11/29/2006 11:44:06 AM PST
by
The G Man
(The NY Times did "great harm to the United States" - President George W. Bush 6/26/06)
To: freedom44
Bush's fault! (Hey, it's a Reuters story)
To: longtermmemmory
(however if you ask some arabs, I believe there is a "continuously in use" arab university in morroco. 600- 500 or so years. Hmmm. Oxford's got that beat...it's been in existence since the 12th century. Heck, even Harvard's over 350, and that's a new-world institution, fer cryin' out loud.
Have this university's alumni accomplished anything of note?
36
posted on
11/29/2006 11:47:08 AM PST
by
Oberon
(What does it take to make government shrink?)
To: freedom44
That is so neat. I want one to play with.
37
posted on
11/29/2006 11:48:25 AM PST
by
Dustbunny
(The BIBLE - Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth)
To: Constitution Day
Wow, they even had plexiglass back then? ;o)
38
posted on
11/29/2006 11:48:48 AM PST
by
LIConFem
(Just opened a new seafood restaurant in Great Britain, called "Squid Pro Quid")
To: Oberon
"the church invented, for all practical purposes, the modern university"
The root of Marxism, postmodernism, multiculturalism, and hedonism--academia. You blame it on the church, do you!?
;>)
Hank
To: Oberon
It was during the Middle Ages that the church invented, for all practical purposes, the modern university.Such as Cornell, Brown, Columbia, etc ... where liberals are mass produced.
40
posted on
11/29/2006 11:50:19 AM PST
by
shekkian
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