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December 12, 2006
The oldest known computer
The Antikythera mechanism is an ancient mechanical analog computer designed to calculate astronomical positions. It was discovered in the Antikythera wreck off the Greek island of Antikythera, between Kythera and Crete, and has been dated to about 150-100 BC.
Sometime before Easter 1900, Elias Stadiatos, a Greek sponge diver, discovered the wreck of an ancient cargo ship off Antikythera island. Sponge divers retrieved several statues and other artifacts from the site. The mechanism itself was discovered on 17 May 1902, when archaeologist Valerios Stais noticed that a piece of rock recovered from the site had a gear wheel embedded in it...
The device is remarkable for the level of miniaturization and complexity of its parts, which is comparable to that of 18th century clocks. It has over 30 gears, with teeth formed through equilateral triangles
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5MB Hard Disk in 1956. The first computer with a hard disk drive weighed over a ton
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From deep drilling for gas & paper currency to the wheelbarrow & the compass - 10 best inventions of the Ancient Chinese
By the way, I cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mind. Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer inwaht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Amzanig huh? Yaeh, and I awlyas thought slpeling was ipmorantt
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December 12, 2006 in Science & Inventions | Permalink
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Comments
The Antikythera machine is amazing indeed. If they were able to do such a thing, what else did they do??
And the human brain is awesome too of course. I've read about this spelling thing a 1000 times and I still love it!!!
Posted by: Markus at Dec 12, 2006 2:55:48 AM
I love the jumbled letters thing! Ujst Acifnsatnig.
Posted by: beajerry at Dec 12, 2006 8:02:11 AM
The jumbled letters only work well, if they are a coherent text. If they were only random words, it would be much more difficult to read them. Try to read the following random words:
rrceefnee, pvereiw, ertvinehyg, plaeonsr, purlsrae, alosynmouny
Posted by: fullfrontal at Dec 12, 2006 2:34:40 PM
re: the jumbled letters, you can try this on arbitrary text here:
http://www.mikepope.com/blog/fun/scramble.aspx
There is in fact no known origin for this -- as far as I ever read, it wasn't at Cambridge.:
http://www.snopes.com/language/apocryph/cambridge.asp
Posted by: mike at Dec 14, 2006 10:00:32 AM