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Apple chap knocks up ancient Lego computer

The plastic fantastic Antikythera Mechanism

Apple software engineer Andrew Carol has rather impressively put together a replica of the ancient Antikythera Mechanism - built entirely from Lego.

The Antikythera Mechanism. Photos: X-Tek

The mechanism, constructed around 80BC, was recovered from the wreck of a cargo ship off the Greek island of Antikythera in 1901, but wasn't until 2006 revealed to be a planetary motion calculator.

Carol has, with a big bucket of Lego and the backing of Digital Science, demonstrated how the contraption may have been used to calculate eclipses:

There's an in-depth look at the machinations of the real Antikythera Mechanism down at Nature. ®

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