2000-year-old astrocomputer recreated with LEGO® parts

May 13, 2019

Enthusiasts from Apple assembled a fully working Antikythera mechanism with LEGO® parts. Fifteen hundred LEGO® parts were used, of which 100 gears. Another good example of what else can be assembled with LEGO®. Although it turned out obviously more complicated than the original, because apparently there is no such variety of gears in LEGO® with the necessary gear ratios.

2000-years-old astrocomputer lego

Antikythera mechanism probably one of the coolest artifacts of antiquity. Ancient artifacts are usually all sorts of tablets, monoliths, disks with different symbols, which have a definite cultural significance. And here it’s not just something very ancient, but a fairly advanced mechanical mechanism, a real astro-computer that allowed to count solar eclipses and the movement of the Sun, Moon and 5 planets known in antiquity (Mercury, Mars, Venus, Jupiter, Saturn) relative to the stars.

Petrified parts of the artifact were found in 1901 and only 50 years later, in 1951 an English scientist was able to understand the purpose of the mechanism, and the exact device was completely determined in 2002. Only few years ago they were able to make a complete reconstruction.

The mechanism is based on the Metonic cycle, which states that the motion of the moon relative to the stars is repeated with great accuracy, exactly every 19 years.