The Greek Antikythera Mechanism

[busyhive]

I pad of the time !

[DepakoteMeister]

Wow.

And I find Hermione Cockburn extremely cute.

[Jackhlf2010]

looks better than the one i bought of ebay :)

[blaketheawesomedude]

Ok seriously where do I get those littly magnifier things to put on my glasses.

[tisbales]

@FGayreceProduction ha ha ha you are a joke everyone wants to be older than greeks ha ha ha ha your people arived here during the otomans empire you idiot

[BayouBluesMan]

yeap we used to be cool , now we owe

[rascalferret]

forget the gizmo smirk those glasses

[BeantownJim]

gregorian calendar came in around what year?

[itachiitachi1946]

@jamesmk2003 2)unlike how many think greeks knew about the eliptical orbits&we knew that earth orbits around the sun.when whole europe was saying that sun orbits around the sun and that earth is flat we told them that they were wrong and we gave em proves of the perimentros of earth that had been calculated since ancient times by looking the shadow of a pyramid.thats why greeks were building also pyramids.europens laughed at us and after that many greeks were killed under the otoman yoke

[TheXRealXBrapp]

He was able to find Venus that quickly? Holy balls.

[fakemadereal]

0:46 that guy looks cool in those glasses

[Microglia1]

I call bull on this. I clearly saw "made in china" engraved on it.

[R32SKYLINEBWD]

this guy talks like such a posh wanker

[tazidevl]

@R32SKYLINEBWD you talk like a poor wanker

[cyritikus]

This would be cool if the ancient Maya didn't build complicated devices that measured the cosmos more accurately before the Greeks.

[diamondogz]

If they don't know anything much about it, why do they call it "Greek"? Why isn't it "Mediterranean"?

[BisdremisKostas]

@diamondogz who cares if it was greek or not . it was made by a bright mind for sure

[EricMetalGuitarist]

@diamondogz Think before you speak, or at least bother to do a bit of research. The writing found on the mechanism is written in Koine Greek (Ελληνιστική Κοινή), so it was clearly created by a Greek(s) in the Hellenistic time period. It's calculations are also perfectly in line with Greek mathematics and astronomy of the day, so to argue that it is Egyptian / Phoenician / Roman, etc. would be a futile argument. The Romans certainly based their early math/astronomy off that of the Greeks, though.

[diamondogz]

@EricMetalGuitarist Perhaps you should think before you respond. As much as I appreciate your detailed feedback on my question. I don’t appreciate your snotty tone. This is not a specialist forum on the Machine, its Youtube. But whilst I'm at it, as a simple layman I suggest a modern day grasp of borders is really unhelpful when trying to understand the Ancient cultural exchanges (of language, science, etc) around the Mediterranean, when human migration was free (unregulated).

[rookiebob]

IT PREDICKZ WEN TEH ANNUNAKIZ WILL LAND ON ERRTH I FIGYERRD IT OUTZ CUZ ME SO SMART

[chrisofnottingham]

4:45 ...and the kebab.

[aaron2600]

Hang on! I thought our ethics and democracy were Christian values starting in the year 0

[wrich1162]

This is just amazing.

[LotusDragon09]

I have a big problem with the end of the video. The Greeks were not the first to do any of that stuff if thats what he is implying. Maybe I misinterpreted it. I remember in high school most of what we learned in world history and literature it was all Roman and Greek stuff with some occasional medieval European stuff. I only remember 2 or 3 pages about the Chinese out of every school textbook in those subjects I had. Its sad that many people dont realize just how much THEY contributed.

[BisdremisKostas]

@LotusDragon09 lets dont stick to nationalities or races ! lets see that this amazing acievement was the work of some great minds. minds that existed all over the world throuout the history

[LotusDragon09]

@BisdremisKostas I agree, but they would be amazed at how advanced China was compared to the rest of the world (or other cultures as well, not just China), but it seems like they are ignoring it because that group of people are quite different to Europe and the Mediterranian. I sense a slight bit of racism, though maybe im thinking too much. So what im saying is, I dont like it when people talk about how advanced a certain culture is while ignoring or even denying the achievements of another.

[EricMetalGuitarist]

@LotusDragon09 What!? What other civilization produced an analog computer for calculating astronomical movements? Sure, like the ancient Greeks and Romans, the Han-dynasty Chinese had rotating armillary spheres to mimic the movement of stars and planets, and Zhang Heng (張衡) of China's Eastern Han period even applied hydraulic power (i.e. waterwheels) to automatically rotate his armillary rings. But this was not an analog computer. That bragging right belongs to the Greco-Roman world.

[maulcs]

Meh. Very meh. Not the machine - this documentary.

[wolfrox777]

OH Now I get it finally :P

[emcastor]

I hope you, who need to stroke your egos by arguing about something you have only researched on youtube, will look further into this.

One of a myriad of reasons this is interesting is because this technology did not re-emerge until the late 1800's. I know arguing semantics is fun, but a conversation is much more productive. Look it up and tell the board what you found.

[fortunanike]

@emcastor Clearly you haven't researched this very well either, as this technology was being used in the 14 hundreds.

[kidwithshorthair]

The Greeks were Super smart but they seem like they were kinda chill about life. guess we'll never know.

[HellaBeed]

"The Greeks WERE an extraordinary people!"

[MAdk1p]

@HellaBeed i lol'ed. i guess its true tho, how have the greeks improved civilization in the past 2000 years?

[HarrymanGR]

@MAdk1p They built the Core of Western Civ, alongside with Romans, which they conquered the world, and so, Western medicine uses Greek terms for example...

[HellaBeed]

@MAdk1p That's why I lol'ed too. They've kinda fucked up the euro, most recently.

[TheVGPras]

@HellaBeed yes they were. RIP Greeks.

[derekstech]

Thats not a computer that is a door latch man people are stupid and yes there are more they just don't have them

[the1337k1ng]

3:45 ''We have to move reasonably fast, because the sun is always moving". Aaaah GOTCHA

[FlippyMcDoodoo]

It's over 190000!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[MoogieSRO]

This was recovered in 190001? And it was built around 150100BC? Well I don't know about you guys, but I'm impressed by those numbers.

[basselope]

did this guy step out of a British Stereotype clothing store? Who dresses like that anymore?

[whitesaint33]

@basselope Um a professional scientist? You think they go around wearing lab coats all the time?

[JrFLYnnIV]

sponge divers, lo;

[BVargas78]

It wasnt unique, it's just the only one that's been found.

[Nomoreidsleft]

Why are these people are so amazed that they would have this device in ancient Greece. People have been observing the sky for thousands of years by then. Even though most people didn't have the skills to build something so intricate, some did. It's the same today. Most of us could not build it but this guy does and has the skill. It's less abstract a task than programming a modern computer, since each gear represents the orbits and rotations. They just had to know ratios.

[tpreagan]

@Nomoreidsleft You betrayed a deep misunderstanding of ancient history. Observing the sky has nothing to do with engineering complex machines. According to your view, nothing is ever remarkable in any historical context because someone somewhere could do it. Conjecture deluxe. Your caveman ancestors said "too smokey; too hot" when fire was invented. Half-empty, FTW.

[Nomoreidsleft]

@tpreagan Sorry, but I think you betray a deep misunderstanding of what I wrote. I'm not saying that it is not remarkable, I'm saying people should not be amazed that the Greeks could do this. We already know they have all the skill and technology needed. Also they've already found less elaborate devices. Studying the skies for thousands of years provided the science needed as well. Utilimately I'm saying we shouldn't give ourselves too much credit for being smarter than the "ancients".

[Mayhem108]

Wow.... it isnt a computer. Its a tool that shows the position of celestrial bodies e.g. the sun the moon and the other planets.

[ventusz]

@Mayhem108 In my opinion in some ways we can call it a computer because it computes the angles between different celestial bodies. Well at least it can be read off the dial, but I don't think this matters when we are talking about such an ancient stuff. They didn't have lcd to show the angle, though an adjustable dial would have been pretty useful for those lacking mathematical knowledge but I reckon those who had this tool didn't.

[Nomoreidsleft]

@ventusz Of course it is a computer. It's just an analog, purpose built computer, unlike the digital general purpose computers we use today. I'm pretty sure those who used it had very good knowledge of mathematics. This computer just saved them the time and trouble of calculating all the angles. They didn't have calculus or algebra, so this computer did all the computations without the need for those.

[ventusz]

@Nomoreidsleft Agreed :)

[skuggi2]

@Nomoreidsleft You claim

[kurtnelle]

@Nomoreidsleft But consider this. It doesn't use electricity. What if the purpose of the system was to be able to predict things such as seasons and sun cycles without the use of electricity. (I'll be you're now thinking... But the greeks didn't have electricity, lol).

[blo0dyme]

@Nomoreidsleft They DID have algebra and calculus.. otherwise how could they get the know how to build it in the first place? *facepalm*

[Nomoreidsleft]

@blo0dyme No, this device was estimated at 150–100 BCE, and Algebra was formalized by Diophantus circa 200 CE. I'm sure they had something rudimentary. As for calculus, it's not really needed to build this device and wasn't formalized until the 15'th and 16th century.

[julesdurel]

@Mayhem108 computer does not just mean something you watch youtube one. its something that calculates precise shit for you. this is an analog computer 

[Mayhem108]

@julesdurel Lol you think I am a simpleton. It isnt a computer it is a tool. It uses gears and a handle, not series of transistors and microprocessors. Technically speaking though I guess you could call it a computer based on definitions.

[TheJacolyte]

@Mayhem108 It is indeed a computer. As others have said, it's simply analog rather than digital. Early digital computers existed that used water filled tubes to represent on/off switches, and were used to calculate things and perform mathematical functions. That's all a computer is really, is a device that performs calculations.

It is indeed a computer, one that is very foreign from what you're normally familiar with.

[helmerman]

@Mayhem108 You just described a computer. Just because it doesn't plug in doesn't mean it's not a computer... computer = something that computes, like for example, positions of stars.

[BuzzkillingtonJR]

Fascinating indeed.

[googlegogo]

ancient computer... oh please...

too bad they dont show more of the replica...

[Aerolfos]

It's amazing when you think about it because nothing as complex was created until many hundreds of years later. Imagine if this was created in larger numbers and such back when it was made - probably a small revolution in computing very early on.

Note - Analog computers are more robust and better at dealing with the real world than digital computers, but lack precision (because you can only be so precise). BTW johney i believe you mean 'Mongols from Mongolia'

[johneymute]

yeah and clock watches could be also concidered as an analogue computer.

also annalogue tv,s could be concidered as an analogue computer,

annyway it,s awesome to know that the greeks gaie so much for what we have today,whereas the mungles from mungolia just give so much to turn things in big dissaters greeks wins hand down!!!!

[steveharrismetalgod]

great documentary!