NavList:

Wonderful,

Not a lot new under the sun when it comes to the Greeks.

As a diver of 40+ years experience, I know the chance of finding this was pretty astronomical. (sorry about the pun.) Surely there should be other examples or documents relating to this?

If unique, even more amazing. A bit like life on earth. ( where are the other examples out there? ET where are you?)

One of the attractions of Cel Nav for me is the shear infinity of the universe and our ability to measure a few selected angles from bodies hundreds/ thousands of light years away,  and know roughly where we are right now. The few photons hitting our retinas after a journey lasting maybe  thousands of years , tells us, with a bit of simple maths,  where we are now! Miraculous or what?

Francis

As I work on x-ray tomography this was a really interesting example of

its use in archaeology. I have spoken to some of the people involved

who were able to read inscriptions on the inside face of gear wheels

which helped understand its purpose. It makes you wonder if they had

other devices of similar complexity in ancient Greece.

On 17 October 2016 at 15:28, Jackson McDonald  wrote:

> Today I had an opportunity to see the Antikythera mechanism at the National

> Archeological Museum in Athens.  It is an astounding analogue computer

> dating back about 2000 years.  It is far more technically sophisticated than

> archeologists thought possible for that period.

> 

> Here is a link to a Wikipedia article:

>> 

>> https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antikythera_mechanism

> 

> There are also several documentaries (of varying quality) about the

> Antikythera mechanism on YouTube describing how it was recovered from an

> ancient shipwreck and how scientists struggled for decades to understand is

> purpose and internal workings.

> 

> Fascinating stuff!

> 

> JMcD

> 

> 

--

Professor of Applied Mathematics

http://www.maths.manchester.ac.uk/bl