Just read that the Antikythera mechanism had way more gears than I thought

I was looking up that ancient Greek computer device (you know, the one found in a shipwreck) and found out it had at least 30 bronze gears, not the 20 I always assumed. Some folks think it tracked eclipses, others say it was basically a fancy calendar wheel. Which camp do you lean toward?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_wendy1mo ago

Wait, didn't they find it had closer to 40 gears in later scans?

miller.rowan1mo ago

@the_wendy yeah I heard the same thing, the original 52 number came from the first rough scans and then newer tech kept lowering it. It reminds me of when I counted my toolkit sockets at the station, thought I had 60 but after actually sorting them it was like 45 lol. This gear count stuff is just a reminder that history is always a moving target.

iris9271mo ago

Oh man, that's wild! Honestly, from 52 down to somewhere around 40? I feel like every time I look into these old machines, the numbers just shift around like crazy. It's kind of like when I try to figure out how many pens I actually own from work. I'll think it's maybe 10, then I open my drawer and find 30. Tbh, it makes me wonder if these ancient gear counts were just guessing back then, or if our modern tech is just picking up on stuff they missed. Ngl, it's a bit humbling to think we're still figuring out basic facts about something that's been dug up for decades.