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Young World
Telltale signs of time
According to a Reuters report, an ancient astronomical calculator made at the end of 2nd Century BC was amazingly accurate and more complex than any instrument for the next 1,000 years. The Antikythera Mechanism is the earliest known device to contain an intricate set of gear wheels. It was retrieved from a shipwreck off the Greek island of Antikythera in 1901 but what it was used for has been a mystery until now. Although the remains are fragmented in 82 brass pieces, scientists from Britain, Greece and the U.S. have reconstructed a model of it using high-resolution X-ray tomography. They believe their findings could force a rethink of the technological potential of the ancient Greeks. "It could be described as the first known calculator," said Professor Mike Edmunds, a professor of astrophysics at Cardiff University in Wales. "Our recent work has applied very modern techniques that we believe have now revealed what its actual functions were."
COMPILED BY SUBAJAYANTHI B.
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