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It grabbed eyeballs of many historians, geologists and antique connoisseurs and baffled many scientists as to its real purpose.<br />
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From the time it was fished out from the colossal depths of the seas near Antikythera island in <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=greece">Greece</a> back in 1900 to 1901, it has triggered many theories and research work among scientists who have left no stones unturned to decipher its origin and functionality.<br />
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Despite its 2000 years of tryst with the underwater life had corroded much of its actual structure and turned it into some crude looking molded pieces of bronze, its value has still been on the rise.<br />
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Amidst the hullabaloo over its origin, which was taken as dating back to the Hellenistic era of 205 B.C, the “world’s first <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=computer">computer</a>” as it was referred to, embraced surprises galore for scientists.<br />
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Of course, the fact that it was a treasure trove of technology was brought to the fore gradually.<br />
<br /> Scientists Christian Carman, Professor of History of Science at Argentina’s University of Quilmes, and James Evans, a Physics Professor teaching at the University of Puget Sound, were the two main masterminds working towards deciphering the reality behind the <keyword id="3135185" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Antikythera-Mechanism">Antikythera Mechanism</keyword>.<br />
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The previous deductions referred to the machine as being one that simulated the motions of the heavenly bodies and later as a machine that had emerged from a spaceship.<br />
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Going a mile ahead of these studies, the two researchers dwelled their research work on theories, which endowed the mechanism with the power to undergo high end astronomical and ecliptic calculations.<br />
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A lot of intense and intricate study went on to understand the actual workings of the machinery because of its already corroded structure.<br />
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It resembled the antique mantel clock in its size, a rounded face and with hands which were capable of rotating. A knob was found that was probably used to wind up the machine and propelling the gearwheels linked to each other in order to make them move in varying speeds.<br />
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The seven hands of the mechanism pertained to the five main planets which were seen from the Earth namely, Mercury, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=Mars">Mars</a>, Jupiter, Venus and Saturn along with the morning star Sun and the Moon. The two dials at the rear end of the case referred to the timing of the eclipses and corresponded to the calendar.<br />
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Several debates have been put forth and many connotations broached forward with regard to the function of this wonderful piece of technology. London’s Science Museum’s curator Michael Wright pointed to its abilities to calculate what the Greeks referred to as “epicycles” or smaller circles that have been embedded prominently on larger circles.<br />
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Evans and Carman pointed to the possibility of the origin of the eclipse prediction theory to be something that was borrowed from the Babylon’s arithmetical techniques by the Greeks. This deduction also leads to the possibility of the mechanism being somewhat dating back to the days of the famous scholar Archimedes.<br />
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After in depth research on the remnants of the eclipse predictor as retained by the Antikythera mechanism, scientists came to the conclusions that the mechanism took calculations that determined the velocity of the eclipses which could be obtained by a study of their anomalies, ecliptic cycles which went missing and other such rare astronomical occurrences.<br />
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It could be so that the principles on which the mechanism worked were a fine blend of the Babylonian arithmetical calculations and Greek trigonometry and geometric understanding which was supposedly arrived at by a Rhodes astronomer Hipparchus.<br />
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Whatever may have been the ultimate function of the machine, it comes as no doubt that the Antikythera mechanism was indeed one-of-its-kind and truly an immaculately designed one that perfectly entailed complex wheels and mechanics to predict nature’s doing. By bringing in the whole of the cosmos molded into the bronze structure the Greeks went on to pave the way for what entails modern scientific predictions and astronomical purviews.<br />
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(Image: Wikipedia)

Here are some intriguing facts about world’s first computer, Antikythera Mechanism

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Researchers think they've solved the 2,200-year-old mystery of the Antikythera mechanism.</li><li>The ancient device, found in a shipwreck, likely followed a Greek lunar calendar.</li></ul><p>Last year, Graham Woan knew just how he wanted to spend his Christmas break: trying to solve the 2,200-year-old mystery of the oldest known "computer" in the world.</p><p>Known as the Antikythera mechanism, the bronze device is a mechanical computer with interlocking gears. In the second century BCE, a user would have used its rings and evenly spaced holes to chart future celestial events, such as eclipses.</p><p>But how many of those evenly spaced holes existed has been a mystery and holds the key to determining exactly how the computer functioned.</p><p>YouTuber Chris Budiselic has long been <a target="_blank" href="https://bhi.co.uk/by-the-light-of-the-moon-a-lunar-calendar-on-the-antikythera-mechanism/">fascinated</a> by the mechanism and <a target="_blank" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ML4tw_UzqZE&amp;list=PLZioPDnFPNsHnyxfygxA0to4RXv4_jDU2">started</a> creating his own version seven years ago but wasn't sure how many holes to include. </p><p>Based on some of Budisic's published research, University of Glasgow astronomers, including Woan,<strong> </strong>turned to statistical modeling techniques to find the answer.</p><p>"It struck me as an interesting problem, and one that I thought I might be able to solve in a different way during the Christmas holidays, so I set about using some statistical techniques to answer the question," Woan said in a university <a target="_blank" href="https://www.gla.ac.uk/news/headline_1086643_en.html">press release</a>.</p><p>Based on the number of holes, the researchers found, the device follows a lunar calendar instead of an Egyptian one, as some previous research suggested.</p><h2 id="88229c20-3e52-49a3-ac2a-ac07f07cf6a4">A shipwreck full of ancient treasures</h2><div type="image" title="antikythera mechanism analog ancient greece" height="3569" width="5354" msid="111500237" hostid="261" sizebytes="1514156"></div><p>The Antikythera mechanism is just one intriguing finding from a 2,000-year-old shipwreck that divers first discovered in 1900. Divers waiting out a storm found the remains near the Greek island of Antikythera.</p><p>Excavations have uncovered three life-size marble horse statues, coins, jewelry, and other treasures, according to the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.whoi.edu/know-your-ocean/ocean-topics/ocean-human-lives/underwater-archaeology/antikythera-shipwreck/">Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute</a>. But the Antikythera mechanism is perhaps the most unique discovery of them all. <br /><br />It's about the size of a shoebox, is broken into six pieces, and has eroded from its time underwater. The mechanism is so sophisticated that some thought it had to be a modern device that got mixed in with the ancient artifacts, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/1006146">according to</a> Derek John de Solla Price. He helped discover the device's function in the 1970s.</p><p>X-ray images from 2005 gave researchers new details about the device. And in 2020, Budiselic and his colleagues used the images to measure the positions of the holes and <a target="_blank" href="https://bhi.co.uk/antikytheramechanism/">proposed</a> the mechanism had between 347 and 367 holes. If it had closer to 350 holes, it would have followed the lunar calendar. If it had 365, it would have been modeled on the Egyptian calendar.</p><p>But it was difficult to nail down an exact number because of the device's diminished condition.</p><p>After learning about Budiselic's research, Woan first used Bayesian analysis, calculating different probabilities of the total number of holes based on the position and number of holes in the remaining pieces of bronze. He learned that it was hundreds of times more likely that the device had 354 holes than 360 holes.</p><p>Woan's colleague Joseph Bayley followed up the research by modifying techniques used to study <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/ligo-gravitational-wave-detector-more-powerful-squeezing-light-2019-12">gravitational waves</a>, which are ripples in space-time. His results agreed with Woan's; there were likely either 354 or 355 holes in the ring. </p><p>In other words, there's a much higher probability that the mechanism tracked the Greek lunar year instead of the Egyptian one. It was capable of calculating planets' positions incredibly accurately for its time.</p><p>The finding reinforces the impressive craftsmanship and knowledge it took to create the device. "The precision of the holes' positioning would have required highly accurate measurement techniques and an incredibly steady hand to punch them," Bayley said in the press release.</p><p>The two have published their research in the peer-reviewed <a target="_blank" href="https://bhi.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/07-HJJuly24-AOTM-2.pdf">Horological Journal</a>.</p>

YouTuber helps researchers solve the mystery of a 2,000-year-old 'computer'

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;"><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris</span></p></div><p></p></div></div>We are closer than ever to deciphering what has been called the world's first computer. The device, known as the Antikythera Mechanism, has been puzzling scientists for more than a century ever since it was discovered in an ancient Greek shipwreck in 1901. </span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">In an event held at the Katerina Laskaridis Historical Foundation Library in Greece in June, an international team of researchers announced the results of a lengthy investigation into what might be the oldest computer in the world. What they found confirms many things we already knew about it, while also providing some tantalizing new details, <a href="http://gizmodo.com/the-world-s-oldest-computer-may-have-been-used-to-predi-1781749625">Gizmodo reports</a>.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">And it will also shed new light on a period of Greek history we know little about.</span></p><h2><strong>A hidden meaning</strong></h2><p><span style="font-weight: 400;"><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Associated Press/Petros Giannakouris</span></p><p class="caption">Fragments of the 2,100-year-old Antikythera Mechanism, believed to be the earliest surviving mechanical computing device, is displayed at the National Archaeological Museum, in Athens, Thursday, June 9 , 2016.</p></div><p></p></div></div>When it was first discovered, scientists weren't quite sure what the Antikythera Mechanism was - it was found amidst a wealth of bronze and marble greek statues and, by comparison, looked like an unsuspecting, </span><span style="font-weight: 400;">sediment-encrusted </span><span style="font-weight: 400;">hunk of bronze.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">But shortly after it was retrieved, the device split apart, revealing the remnants of an intricate system of gears that scientists believed once functioned as a sort of mechanical computer. </span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">It was likely used by ancient Greek astronomers to study the sky. </span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The device, which has been dated back to sometime between 200 and 70 B.C., was more than a millennium ahead of its time - nothing else like it would surface for more than a thousand years.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The team used state-of-the-art x-ray scanning and imaging equipment to reconstruct the mechanism and figure out how it works. But what they hadn't realized was that the techniques they were using would also allow them to decipher explanatory text carved into the device, team member Mike Evans <a href="http://bigstory.ap.org/article/ac16bc440e8b470cadf05e69c812538d/decade-labor-reveals-philosophers-guide-galaxy">told the AP</a>. </span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">They are now able to read about 3,500 characters of this text, which functions as a sort of description label, giving them a better idea of what it is. </span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">"It's a lot of detail for us because it comes from a period from which we know very little about Greek astronomy and essentially nothing about the technology, except what we gather from here," said team member Alexander Jones, a professor of the history of ancient <keyword id="41551" type="ENTERTAINMENT" weightage="100" keywordseo="science">science</keyword> at New York University, to the AP. "So these very small texts are a very big thing for us."</span></p><h2><strong>A philosopher's instructional device</strong></h2><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The team says the mechanism was a calendar of the sun and the moon. It showed the phases of the moon, the position of the sun and moon in the zodiac, the position of the planets, and it predicted eclipses, the AP reports. It was 'a philosopher's instructional device' of sorts.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">"It was not a research tool, something that an astronomer would use to do computations, or even an astrologer to do prognostications, but something that you would use to teach about the cosmos and our place in the cosmos," Jones said. "It's like a textbook of astronomy as it was understood then, which connected the movements of the sky and the planets with the lives of the ancient Greeks and their environment."</span></p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/homo-floresiensis-discovered-indonesia-archaeology-dig-hobbit-ancestor-2016-6">Archaeologists made a groundbreaking discovery that unveils the mysterious origins of real-life hobbits</a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="YycG4wNDE6EEoKX6A3QAG2dHjfmRBbsH" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

Decrypting this 2,100-year-old computer will give us an unprecedented look into ancient Greece

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Here are some intriguing facts about world’s first computer, Antikythera Mechanism

Preetam Kaushik

YouTuber helps researchers solve the mystery of a 2,000-year-old 'computer'

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Decrypting this 2,100-year-old computer will give us an unprecedented look into ancient Greece

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