The Antikythera Mechanism is a 2,000 year old mechanism from Greece that modelled the known universe. Known as the world’s oldest computer, it was discovered by the Greek sponge divers inside an ancient shipwreck in 1900-1901. After much research, the scientists came to a conclusion that it was built between 150 BC and 200 BC.
But, a new study says that the Antikythera Mechanism is much older than originally believed. It is an ancient clock device that tracked solar system’s cycles. The new study claims that the ancient Greeks were able to predict eclipses and were capable of engineering the complex machine much earlier than it was previously thought. Two scientists have conducted a new research in order to have a better grasp on the mechanism found that it was actually built in 205 BC. The research also reinforces the concept that the prediction of eclipses was not established by using trigonometry and the Greeks predicted eclipses by using Babylonian methods of arithmetic.
The two scientists active in the research are Mr. Christián Carman, history and science professor from the University of Quilmes, Argentina, and Mr. James Evans, professor of physics at the University of Puget Sound.
A statement from James Evans, “If the Antikythera Mechanism did indeed use an eclipse predictor that worked best for a cycle starting in 205 BC, the likely origin of this machine is tantalizingly close to the lifetime of Archimedes,” triggers a belief that period in which the Antikythera Mechanism was dated, a similar mechanism was created by Archimedes. His mechanism is believed to have been brought by the Roman general Marcellus in Rome after Archimedes’ death in 212 B.C. and after the dismissal of Syracuse.
As per the official statement from university, both the researchers used an elimination method which allowed them to analyse the various ways in which the eclipse patterns on the mechanism could match the Babylonian records thereby arriving at the date which makes the Antikythera Mechanism older than previously thought.
The Antikythera Mechanism is a 2,000 year old mechanism from Greece that modelled the known universe. Known as the world’s oldest computer, it was discovered by the Greek sponge divers inside an ancient shipwreck in 1900-1901. After much research, the scientists came to a conclusion that it was built between 150 BC and 200 BC.
But, a new study says that the Antikythera Mechanism is much older than originally believed. It is an ancient clock device that tracked solar system’s cycles. The new study claims that the ancient Greeks were able to predict eclipses and were capable of engineering the complex machine much earlier than it was previously thought. Two scientists have conducted a new research in order to have a better grasp on the mechanism found that it was actually built in 205 BC. The research also reinforces the concept that the prediction of eclipses was not established by using trigonometry and the Greeks predicted eclipses by using Babylonian methods of arithmetic.
The two scientists active in the research are Mr. Christián Carman, history and science professor from the University of Quilmes, Argentina, and Mr. James Evans, professor of physics at the University of Puget Sound.
A statement from James Evans, “If the Antikythera Mechanism did indeed use an eclipse predictor that worked best for a cycle starting in 205 BC, the likely origin of this machine is tantalizingly close to the lifetime of Archimedes,” triggers a belief that period in which the Antikythera Mechanism was dated, a similar mechanism was created by Archimedes. His mechanism is believed to have been brought by the Roman general Marcellus in Rome after Archimedes’ death in 212 B.C. and after the dismissal of Syracuse.
As per the official statement from university, both the researchers used an elimination method which allowed them to analyse the various ways in which the eclipse patterns on the mechanism could match the Babylonian records thereby arriving at the date which makes the Antikythera Mechanism older than previously thought.