In constructing a digital model of the Antikythera mechanism, scientists may have finally exposed a key function of the ancient device, revealing a design that required seriously advanced thinking.
Rooted in a shipwreck off the coast of Crete in 1901, the 2,000-year-old Antikythera mechanism has baffled scientists for decades. New research published in Scientific Reports presents a hypothetical model of the astronomical instrument, which Tony Freeth, lead author and mechanical engineer at the University of College London, says it is the first to meet “all physical tests and matches descriptions of scientific inscriptions engraved on the mechanism itself.” he said in a statement.
The manual device is the oldest known analog astronomical computer, a first example of complex mechanical engineering. The device, which dates back to ancient Greece, modeled astronomical phenomena and events, such as lunar and solar eclipses. and the positions of the Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn.
Only a third of the Antikythera Mthe mechanism was recovered and there is nothing similar to compare it. The incomplete relic, with its 30 bronze gears and 82 individual fragments, has forced scientists to speculate on what it was like, what it was used for and how it worked.
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In 2016, scientists presented the results of decades of research on the relic. Using an X-ray scanner, the scientists were able to document 3,500 characters of explanatory text — a kind of instruction manual — embedded in the device. Analysis of this text suggests that the Antikythera mechanism is not a true computer, as it is not programmable. Rather, it was a machine designed to transmit our place to the universe i predicts celestial events such as lunar and solar eclipses.
Fragment A, the largest part of the device, consists of bearings, pillars, and a block, while fragment D contains a disc, the purpose of which is unknown, a 63-tooth gear, and a plate. The aim of the new study was to gain a better understanding of the gear system at the front of the mechanism, which is largely lacking.
The inscriptions mentioned a cosmic mechanical display, in which the planets and the Moon, represented instead of markers, moved around rings. As the authors write in their study, “no previous reconstruction has come close” to creating a model that truly adheres to this apparent specification. To this end, the team attempted to recreate this missing and presumed component of the Antikythera mechanism.
“The resolution of this complex 3D puzzle reveals a creation of genius, combining cycles of Babylonian astronomy, mathematics from Plato’s Academy, and ancient Greek astronomical theories,” wrote the authors, who included the mechanical engineer. Adam Wojcik, also of UCL.
In fact, the ancient Babylonians chronicled the movements of the planets, while the ancient Greek philosopher Parmenides developed a mathematical model to explain these movements.
The inscriptions on the device mentioned the celestial cycles assigned to Venus, at 462, and Saturn, at 442. Scientists associated these figures synodic cycles, which describe the time it takes a celestial object to return to its original position in relation to our perspective on Earth. These cycles were important to the ancient Greeks because of their geocentric view of the universe. Looking at the night sky, the planets sometimes seem to pause briefly and sway back and forth as they — and we on Earth — orbit the Sun (that is, retrograde motion), in what is an optical illusion. (A a fantastic example of this can be seen here, in which the Moon seems to recede.) As a funny fact, the word “planet” comes from the Greek word for “vagabond.”
The Greeks, believing that the planets revolved around it Earth, they were baffled by these retrograde movements, and they ideas some mathematical theories and explanations quite complicated to make everything work, many of themit was wrong.
Looking at the Antikythera mechanism the researchers realized that the components of fragments A and D coincided with the mechanical movements of Venus, “which models exactly its 462-year planetary period relationship, with the 63-tooth gear playing a crucial role,” he said. to say. David Higgon, PhD student and co-author of the article, to the UCL statement. The scientists then determined the cycles of the remaining planets, which they did using ancient Greek formulas, and then incorporated those cycles into “highly compact mechanisms, according to physical evidence,” according to the document.
All it means is that the Greeks, with their geocentric view of the cosmos, made it unnecessarily difficult. themselves when designing the Antikythera mechanism. Instead of showing the planets …represented by pearls moving along concentric circles – moving in unique direction around the Sun, them they had to show the planets shining back and forth during their cycles as they moved Earth. Incredibly, this had to be done for each of the five planets, with the relative position of each must be exact at all times. At least, assuming that’s how the machine worked.
Equipped with their calculations, the scientists digitally designed and recreated this monstrously complicated. The scientists “created innovative mechanisms for all the planets that would allow them to calculate new advanced astronomical cycles and minimize the number of gears in the entire system, so that they would adapt to the small spaces available,” Freeth said. In fact, the gear arrangements could not be arbitrarily large, as the hypothesized components needed to fit inside the device, including gaps no more than 25 millimeters deep.
A 30-movie about this research, which shows how this model came together, can be seen below Vimeo.
The simulated machine seems to work, but the key word is simulate. The authors are right in saying that an important step still needs to be completed.
“Now we have to prove its viability by doing it with old techniques,” Wojcik said. “A particular challenge will be the system of overlapping tubes that carried the astronomical exits.”
Nice. It seems that the team is about to embark on some experimental archeology, in which a real physicist is performed. the model of the Antikythera mechanism will be constructed. It clears the mind to think that we might struggle to recreate this “genius creation” some 2,000 years later, in what is a remarkable example of lost technology.