Building a Calculating Machine using Lego

Ladies and gentlemen, allow me to introduce to you the Lego Difference Engine, a mechanical computer which Andrew Carol built using Lego pieces:

The first electronic digital computer — the Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer (ENIAC) — was built during the WW2. Until then, computers were not machines, but people who “computed stuff”.

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 second- and third-order polynomials to three or four digits. This is pretty impressive! If the idea of building a mechanical computer seeds a bit odd to you, note that until the 1970s there were no pocket electronic calculators, and therefore engineers had to use a slide rule.

(via TechEBlog, Gizmodo and Boing Boing)

Tags: Andy Carol, Art, Computers, Difference Engine, Lego, Mechanical Computers, Mechanical Devices