Researchers Home In On Possible 'Day Zero' For Antikythera Mechanism (arstechnica.com) 32
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: The mysterious Antikythera mechanism -- an ancient device believed to have been used for tracking the heavens -- has fascinated scientists and the public alike since it was first recovered from a shipwreck over a century ago. Much progress has been made in recent years to reconstruct the surviving fragments and learn more about how the mechanism might have been used. And now, members of a team of Greek researchers believe they have pinpointed the start date for the Antikythera mechanism, according to a preprint posted to the physics arXiv repository. Knowing that "day zero" is critical to ensuring the accuracy of the device.
"Any measuring system, from a thermometer to the Antikythera mechanism, needs a calibration in order to [perform] its calculations correctly," co-author Aristeidis Voulgaris of the Thessaloniki Directorate of Culture and Tourism in Greece told New Scientist. "Of course it wouldn't have been perfect -- it's not a digital computer, it's gears -- but it would have been very good at predicting solar and lunar eclipses." [...] In 1951, a British science historian named Derek J. de Solla Price began investigating the theoretical workings of the device. Based on X-ray and gamma ray photographs of the fragments, Price and physicist Charalambos Karakalos published a 70-page paper in 1959 in the Transactions of the American Philosophical Society. Based on those images, they hypothesized that the mechanism had been used to calculate the motions of stars and planets -- making it the first known analog computer. [...]
Voulgaris and his co-authors based their new analysis on a 223-month cycle called a Saros, represented by a spiral inset on the back of the device. The cycle covers the time it takes for the Sun, Moon, and Earth to return to their same positions and includes associated solar and lunar eclipses. Given our current knowledge about how the device likely functioned, as well as the inscriptions, the team believed the start date would coincide with an annular solar eclipse. [...] "The eclipse predictions on the [device's back] contain enough astronomical information to demonstrate conclusively that the 18-year series of lunar and solar eclipse predictions started in 204 BCE," Alexander Jones of New York University told New Scientist, adding that there have been four independent calculations of this. "The reason such a dating is possible is because the Saros period is not a highly accurate equation of lunar and solar periodicities, so every time you push forward by 223 lunar months the quality of the prediction degrades."
"Any measuring system, from a thermometer to the Antikythera mechanism, needs a calibration in order to [perform] its calculations correctly," co-author Aristeidis Voulgaris of the Thessaloniki Directorate of Culture and Tourism in Greece told New Scientist. "Of course it wouldn't have been perfect -- it's not a digital computer, it's gears -- but it would have been very good at predicting solar and lunar eclipses." [...] In 1951, a British science historian named Derek J. de Solla Price began investigating the theoretical workings of the device. Based on X-ray and gamma ray photographs of the fragments, Price and physicist Charalambos Karakalos published a 70-page paper in 1959 in the Transactions of the American Philosophical Society. Based on those images, they hypothesized that the mechanism had been used to calculate the motions of stars and planets -- making it the first known analog computer. [...]
Voulgaris and his co-authors based their new analysis on a 223-month cycle called a Saros, represented by a spiral inset on the back of the device. The cycle covers the time it takes for the Sun, Moon, and Earth to return to their same positions and includes associated solar and lunar eclipses. Given our current knowledge about how the device likely functioned, as well as the inscriptions, the team believed the start date would coincide with an annular solar eclipse. [...] "The eclipse predictions on the [device's back] contain enough astronomical information to demonstrate conclusively that the 18-year series of lunar and solar eclipse predictions started in 204 BCE," Alexander Jones of New York University told New Scientist, adding that there have been four independent calculations of this. "The reason such a dating is possible is because the Saros period is not a highly accurate equation of lunar and solar periodicities, so every time you push forward by 223 lunar months the quality of the prediction degrades."
zero day (Score:5, Funny)
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Due kudos to "BeauHD" for also linking to the source paper, so that the "technical arse" site can remain bypassed. Or possibly even to the original anonymous submitter.
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Once jailbroken, can it run Linuxos?
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It's good that they figured this out (Score:2)
It will make it easier to use the Antikythera mechanism when the evil Kythera mechanism is found.
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ISR - Solar eclipse go blind staring at YOU!
Great videa (Score:5, Interesting)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
covers every known about it up to late 2015.
Absolutely amazing.
Enjoy
Another great series (Score:3)
Clickspring (watchmaker YouTube channel) built a reproduction using period methods [youtube.com], and in the process discovered a number of features of the original mechanism, settled a few questions, and discovered the reasoning behind some of the design details.
If you're into machining porn, the Clickspring channel is pretty interesting.
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Lost arts (Score:2)
Yeah, there is the PBS Nova documentary of some dude in Door County, Wisconsin trying to recreate an ulfberht sword.
There is a lot of lost knowledge of the details of the metal working processes.
How much observation was needed to calibrate it? (Score:2)
I presume centuries of records were required. If the mechanism were intended to predict eclipses, you can wonder why they went to so much trouble. It is not as if an eclipse has much effect on peoples lives. Is this a case of demonstrating priestly power? That is, we can predict great events in the heavens, so you better do what we say. This might apply to building of structures such as Stonehenge, which are presumed to be connected to astronomical phenomena.
In the case of things such as celebrating the dep
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A good time range of observations, yes, but maybe not centuries. The Saros cycle (whatever the inventors/ discoverers called it ; the name comes from 17th Century England) is just over 18 years long, so you could probably accumulate sufficient records (of eclipses, but also full/ new Moons, maximal / minimal rising / setting azimuths) to be reasonably sure there is a cycle in under a century (over 5 cycles), and probably have grounds to build an observatory after
Gobekli Tepe (Score:3)
Gobelki Tepe must have come after the invention of agriculture.
The construction of Gobekli Tepe involved moving 20-ton stone slabs. That must have taken a lot of beer to bribe that many friends. Beer is brewed from grain, which requires agriculture.
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Yeah, you'd think that. It came as a surprise to the archaeologists who excavated it (well, they're still doing that ; less than 1/4 of the way through the site) and found dateable material in the foundations of the walls and monumental stones that gave dates before the (known) record of agriculture. It's a solid enough result that I didn't bother to make notes of when and where it was published.
I looked it up. From a DAI report [dainst.org],
Reward system (Score:2)
People didn't function on the same reward basis?
Are you trying to tell me, a dude 9500 BCE was not able to get his friends to move some stuff by giving them beer?
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I'm trying to think if ... ISTR that there have been reports of very old fermented horse's milk drinks being found as scrapings in pots ... in the Black-Caspian Seas region (I might be being over precise by claiming it to have been a Scythi
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Even if all you need is 18 years of data in order to calibrate an astronomical calculator, that is ages by modern standards. I am currently trying to upgrade an embedded computer product I helped to develop over 20 years ago. It is still very popular, which is nice, but maintaining it is quite a struggle. It is like the world has changed so much in that short period of time that I am now some kind of historian, rather than an innovator.
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Which is not the relevant standard - the experience at the time (whether that be a millennium or several BCE, or 1700 CE) was the relevant standard. Now, thanks to writing, we have those people's work available as fast as we can assimilate it.
I had a friend - about the time you were developing that product, he's
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Besides, being able to remember working 20 years ago probably means that you're not going to be invited to develop anything these days.
Though I am old to enough to retire and live on a pension, I am not done with the inventing business yet. I recently installed a new open source PCB CAD system, which appears to have some advantages over the previous system I had been using for years. I am still the go-to guy for radio engineering, such as antenna design, which my younger colleagues consider to be deep ju-ju, best left to the experts. The thing is, I get results. It does not seem to matter that I only spend a few hours a day on work stuff.
Re:How much observation was needed to calibrate it (Score:4, Insightful)
In antiquity, because the underlying phenomenon was not understood or predictable, eclipses were universally seem as harbingers of doom. And while there is no physical effect on people from an eclipse, the reactions of people can change the course of history.
For instance, a lunar eclipse led to the Athenian defeat at the Battle of Syracuse [wikipedia.org], which spelled their doom in the Peloponnesian War. Herodotus tells of another eclipse that stopped a battle [wikipedia.org] and ended a long-running war between the Lydians and Medes. Being able to predict a lunar eclipse saved Christopher Columbus from starvation and death in Jamaica [wikipedia.org], largely by preying on the superstition and gullibility of the locals.
Some may look at this history and say "what a bunch of idiots." Rightly or wrongly, however, human reactions to eclipses have definitely had impacts.
A more modern example would be the eclipse of 1919 observed by Arthur Eddington [wikipedia.org]. Humans had understood the nature of eclipses for hundreds or thousands of years by that point, and could predict them with great accuracy far into the future. The important impact of this one was that it provided experimental confirmation of Einstein's general relativity. And if you think that hasn't had an impact on people's lives, then I ask you to turn in your geek card and log off Slashdot.
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I think the point is maintaining the illusion of control. Mostly, when it comes to important stuff about about the economy and international relations, politicians make it up as they go along and hope for the best. Or worst, smite people mightily to suppress dissenting views. It helps a great deal if you can show that you know stuff about the way heavenly objects behave, and can predict what will happen in that respect many years in advance. Completely pointless on an economic basis, but bloody scary, which
ObTrivia (Score:2)
Eratosthenes would have been around in 204 BC. Archimedes, one contender for inventor, was already dead by then. He may well have invented it, but Eratosthenes must surely be a contender for the person who calibrated it.
"Hone In", not "Home In" (Score:1)
There's a typo in the title. "home" should be "hone".
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No there isn't, and no it shouldn't.
https://www.merriam-webster.co... [merriam-webster.com]