Andrew Carol’s impressive Lego Difference Engine is a mechanical computer built with LEGO pieces:
From Andy Carol’s website:
Before the day of computers and pocket calculators all mathematics was done by hand. Great effort was expended to compose trigonometric and logarithmic tables for navigation, scientific investigation, and engineering purposes. The larger efforts involved rooms of semi skilled people, called ‘computers’, capable of doing reliable arithmetic who would be under the direction of a skilled mathematician. In the mid-19th century, people began to design machines to automate this error prone process. Many machines of various designs were eventually built but, the most advanced and famous of these was not. The Babbage Difference Engine.
Andy Carol’s Difference Engine solves 2nd and 3rd order polynomials to three or four digits. If the idea of building a mechanical computer seems a bit odd to you, note that until the 1970s there were no pocket electronic calculators, and therefore engineers had to use slide rules.
Tags: Andy Carol, Art, Computers, Difference Engine, Lego, Mechanical Computers, Mechanical Devices
February 27, 2008 at 23:43 |
Wow, and it doesn’t make noise or need any cooling.
October 13, 2010 at 14:40 |
Actually, Gili, if the LEGO machine could operate as fast as a electronic one, of any speed –which it can’t because stress would cause it to break long before that– it would generate tremendous amounts of both heat and sound. Conversely, if an electronic device was clocked at the speed of a mechanical, of any speed than it would generate now heat and thus no sound since it would require no cooling.
February 27, 2008 at 23:53 |
Well, all those LEGO gears must make some noise during the process of computation, but I doubt there’s need for cooling ;-)
It’s kind of cool to look at computation while it’s taking place PHYSICALLY. Microelectronics has allowed such miniaturization that mainstream (electronic) computation seems to have turned into magic almost.
March 9, 2012 at 16:23 |
Cool, and if you get bored of adding up sums you can smash it down and build a fort
July 28, 2012 at 16:50 |
I Agree with Bob Ninky :)