Said another way, The Incredible Machine (TIM) anticipates Hacker's defining study of meta-cognition—i.e., “knowledge of one's own.
The Antikythera mechanism (Fragment A – back)The Antikythera mechanism (, ) is an ancient hand powered Greek which has also been described as the first example of such device used to predict positions and for and purposes decades in advance. It could also be used to track the four-year cycle of athletic games which was similar to an, the cycle of the.This artefact was retrieved from the sea in 1901, and identified on 17 May 1902 as containing a gear by archaeologist, among wreckage retrieved from a off the coast of the Greek island. The instrument is believed to have been designed and constructed by and has been variously dated to about 87 BC, or between 150 and 100 BC, or to 205 BC, or to within a generation before the shipwreck, which has been dated to approximately 70–60 BC.The device, housed in the remains of a 34 cm × 18 cm × 9 cm (13.4 in × 7.1 in × 3.5 in) wooden box, was found as one lump, later separated into three main fragments which are now divided into 82 separate fragments after conservation efforts. Four of these fragments contain gears, while inscriptions are found on many others. The largest gear is approximately 14 centimetres (5.5 in) in diameter and originally had 223 teeth.It is a complex mechanism composed of at least 30 meshing bronze gears.
A team led by Mike Edmunds and Tony Freeth at used modern computer and high resolution surface scanning to image inside fragments of the crust-encased mechanism and read the faintest inscriptions that once covered the outer casing of the machine.Detailed imaging of the mechanism suggests that it had 37 gear wheels enabling it to follow the movements of the Moon and the Sun through the zodiac, to predict eclipses and even to model the, where the Moon's velocity is higher in its. This motion was studied in the 2nd century BC by astronomer of, and it is speculated that he may have been consulted in the machine's construction.The knowledge of this technology was lost at some point in. Similar technological works later appeared in the medieval and, but works with similar complexity did not appear again until the development of mechanical in Europe in the fourteenth century. All known fragments of the Antikythera mechanism are now kept at the in Athens, along with a number of artistic reconstructions and of the mechanism to demonstrate how it may have looked and worked. (1922–1983) with a model of the Antikythera mechanismCaptain Dimitrios Kontos (Δημήτριος Κοντός) and a crew of from island discovered the during the spring of 1900, and recovered artefacts during the first expedition with the Hellenic Royal Navy, in 1900–1901. This wreck of a Roman cargo ship was found at a depth of 45 metres (148 ft) off Point Glyphadia on the Greek island of. The team retrieved numerous large artefacts, including bronze and marble statues, pottery, unique glassware, jewellery, coins, and the mechanism.
The mechanism was retrieved from the wreckage in 1901, most probably in July of that year. It is not known how the mechanism came to be on the cargo ship, but it has been suggested that it was being taken from to, together with other looted treasure, to support a being staged by.All of the items retrieved from the wreckage were transferred to the National Museum of Archaeology in Athens for storage and analysis. The mechanism appeared at the time to be little more than a lump of corroded bronze and wood; it went unnoticed for two years, while museum staff worked on piecing together more obvious treasures, such as the statues.On 17 May 1902, found that one of the pieces of rock had a gear wheel embedded in it. He initially believed that it was an astronomical clock, but most scholars considered the device to be, too complex to have been constructed during the same period as the other pieces that had been discovered. Investigations into the object were dropped until British science historian and Yale University professor became interested in it in 1951. In 1971, Price and Greek nuclear physicist Charalampos Karakalos made X-ray and of the 82 fragments. Price published an extensive 70-page paper on their findings in 1974.Two other searches for items at the Antikythera wreck site in 2012 and 2015 have yielded a number of fascinating art objects and a second ship which may or may not be connected with the treasure ship on which the Mechanism was found.
Also found was a bronze disk, embellished with the image of a bull. The disk has four 'ears' which have holes in them, and it was thought by some that it may have been part of the Antikythera Mechanism itself, as a '. However, there appears to be little evidence that it was part of the Mechanism; it is more likely that the disk was a bronze decoration on a piece of furniture.
Origin The Antikythera mechanism is generally referred to as the first known. The quality and complexity of the mechanism's manufacture suggests that it must have had undiscovered predecessors made during the. Its construction relied on theories of astronomy and mathematics developed by Greek astronomers during the second century BC, and it is estimated to have been built in the late second century BC or the early first century BC.In 1974, Derek de Solla Price concluded from gear settings and inscriptions on the mechanism's faces that it was made about 87 BC and lost only a few years later. And associates visited the wreck in 1976 and recovered coins dated between 76 and 67 BC. The mechanism's advanced state of corrosion has made it impossible to perform an accurate, but it is believed that the device was made of a low-tin alloy (of approximately 95% copper, 5% tin). Its instructions were composed in.In 2008, continued research by the Antikythera Mechanism Research Project suggested that the concept for the mechanism may have originated in the colonies of, since they identified the calendar on the Spiral as coming from Corinth or one of its colonies in Northwest Greece or Sicily. Was a colony of Corinth and the home of, and the Antikythera Mechanism Research project argued in 2008 that it might imply a connection with the school of Archimedes.
However, it has recently been demonstrated that the calendar on the Metonic Spiral is indeed of the Corinthian type but cannot be that of Syracuse. Another theory suggests that coins found by Jacques Cousteau at the wreck site in the 1970s date to the time of the device's construction, and posits that its origin may have been from the ancient Greek city of, home of the. With its many scrolls of art and science, it was second in importance only to the during the Hellenistic period.The ship carrying the device also contained vases in the style, leading to a hypothesis that it was constructed at an academy founded by philosopher on that Greek island. Rhodes was a busy trading port in antiquity and a centre of astronomy and mechanical engineering, home to astronomer who was active from about 140 BC to 120 BC.
The mechanism uses Hipparchus's theory for the motion of the Moon, which suggests the possibility that he may have designed it or at least worked on it. In addition, it has recently been argued that the astronomical events on the of the Antikythera Mechanism work best for latitudes in the range of 33.3–37.0 degrees north; the island of Rhodes is located between the latitudes of 35.85 and 36.50 degrees north.In 2014, a study by Carman and Evans argued for a new dating of approximately 200 BC based on identifying the start-up date on the as the astronomical lunar month that began shortly after the new moon of 28 April 205 BC. Moreover, according to Carman and Evans, the Babylonian arithmetic style of prediction fits much better with the device's predictive models than the traditional Greek trigonometric style. A study by Paul Iversen published in 2017 reasons that the prototype for the device was indeed from Rhodes, but that this particular model was modified for a client from Epirus in northwestern Greece; Iversen argues that it was probably constructed no earlier than a generation before the shipwreck, a date supported also by Jones.Further dives were undertaken in 2014, with plans to continue in 2015, in the hope of discovering more of the mechanism. A five-year programme of investigations began in 2014 and ended in October 2019, with a new five-year session starting in May 2020.
Description The original mechanism apparently came out of the Mediterranean as a single encrusted piece. Soon afterward it fractured into three major pieces.
Other small pieces have broken off in the interim from cleaning and handling, and still others were found on the sea floor by the Cousteau expedition. Other fragments may still be in storage, undiscovered since their initial recovery; Fragment F came to light in that way in 2005. Of the 82 known fragments, seven are mechanically significant and contain the majority of the mechanism and inscriptions. There are also 16 smaller parts that contain fractional and incomplete inscriptions.
Major fragments FragmentSize mmWeight gGearsInscriptionsNotesA180 × 150369.127YesThe main fragment contains the majority of the known mechanism. Clearly visible on the front is the large b1 gear, and under closer inspection further gears behind said gear (parts of the l, m, c, and d trains are clearly visible as gears to the naked eye). The crank mechanism socket and the side-mounted gear that meshes with b1 is on Fragment A. The back of the fragment contains the rearmost e and k gears for synthesis of the moon anomaly, noticeable also is the pin and slot mechanism of the k train. It is noticed from detailed scans of the fragment that all gears are very closely packed and have sustained damage and displacement due to their years in the sea. The fragment is approximately 30 mm thick at its thickest point.Fragment A also contains divisions of the upper left quarter of the Saros spiral and 14 inscriptions from said spiral. The fragment also contains inscriptions for the Exeligmos dial and visible on the back surface the remnants of the dial face.
Finally, this fragment contains some back door inscriptions.B125 × 6099.41YesContains approximately the bottom right third of the Metonic spiral and inscriptions of both the spiral and back door of the mechanism. The Metonic scale would have consisted of 235 cells of which 49 have been deciphered from fragment B either in whole or partially. The rest so far are assumed from knowledge of the. This fragment also contains a single gear (o1) used in the Olympic train.C120 × 11063.81YesContains parts of the upper right of the front dial face showing calendar and zodiac inscriptions. This fragment also contains the Moon indicator dial assembly including the Moon phase sphere in its housing and a single bevel gear (ma1) used in the Moon phase indication system.D45 × 3515.01Contains at least one unknown gear and according to possibly two.
Their purpose and position has not been ascertained to any accuracy or consensus, but lends to the debate for the possible planet displays on the face of the mechanism.E60 × 3522.1YesFound in 1976 and contains six inscriptions from the upper right of the Saros spiral.F90 × 8086.2YesFound in 2005 and contains 16 inscriptions from the lower right of the Saros spiral. It also contains remnants of the mechanism's wooden housing.G125 × 11031.7YesA combination of fragments taken from fragment C while cleaning.Minor fragments Many of the smaller fragments that have been found contain nothing of apparent value; however, a few have some inscriptions on them. Fragment 19 contains significant back door inscriptions including one reading '. 76 years.' Which refers to the. Other inscriptions seem to describe the function of the back dials. In addition to this important minor fragment, 15 further minor fragments have remnants of inscriptions on them.: 7 Mechanism. Schematic of the artefact's known mechanismInformation on the specific data gleaned from the ruins by the latest inquiries is detailed in the supplement to Freeth's 2006 Nature article.
Operation On the front face of the mechanism there is a fixed ring dial representing the, the twelve signs marked off with equal 30-degree sectors. This matched with the Babylonian custom of assigning one twelfth of the ecliptic to each zodiac sign equally, even though the boundaries were variable.
Outside of that dial is another ring which is rotatable, marked off with the months and days of the Sothic, twelve months of 30 days plus five. The months are marked with the Egyptian names for the months transcribed into the. The first task, then, is to rotate the Egyptian calendar ring to match the current zodiac points. The Egyptian calendar ignored leap days, so it advanced through a full zodiac sign in about 120 years.The mechanism was operated by turning a small hand crank (now lost) which was linked via a to the largest gear, the four-spoked gear visible on the front of fragment A, the gear named b1. This moved the date pointer on the front dial, which would be set to the correct Egyptian calendar day. The year is not selectable, so it is necessary to know the year currently set, or by looking up the cycles indicated by the various calendar cycle indicators on the back in the Babylonian tables for the day of the year currently set, since most of the calendar cycles are not synchronous with the year. The crank moves the date pointer about 78 days per full rotation, so hitting a particular day on the dial would be easily possible if the mechanism were in good working condition.
The action of turning the hand crank would also cause all interlocked gears within the mechanism to rotate, resulting in the simultaneous calculation of the position of the and, the, and calendar cycles, and perhaps the locations of.The operator also had to be aware of the position of the spiral dial pointers on the two large dials on the back. The pointer had a 'follower' that tracked the spiral incisions in the metal as the dials incorporated four and five full rotations of the pointers.
When a pointer reached the terminal month location at either end of the spiral, the pointer's follower had to be manually moved to the other end of the spiral before proceeding further.: 10 Faces. Computer-generated front panel of the Freeth model Front face The front dial has two concentric circular scales that represent the path of the through the heavens. The outer ring is marked off with the days of the 365-day. On the inner ring, a second dial marks the Greek signs of the, with division into degrees. The mechanism predates the reform, but the and had already pointed to a 365 1⁄ 4-day solar year, as seen in 's of 238 BC. The dials are not believed to reflect his proposed ( 6), but the outer calendar dial may be moved against the inner dial to compensate for the effect of the extra quarter-day in the solar year by turning the scale backward one day every four years.The position of the Sun on the ecliptic corresponds to the current date in the year. The orbits of the Moon and the five planets known to the Greeks are close enough to the ecliptic to make it a convenient reference for defining their positions as well.The following three are inscribed in on the surviving pieces of the outer ring:.
ΠΑΧΩΝ. ΠΑΥΝΙ. ΕΠΙΦΙ The other months have been reconstructed, although some reconstructions of the mechanism omit the five days of the Egyptian intercalary month. The dial contains Greek inscriptions of the members of the zodiac, which is believed to be adapted to the version rather than the:: 8. Computer-generated back panelIn July 2008, scientists reported new findings in the journal showing that the mechanism not only tracked the and predicted, but also calculated the timing of several panhellenic athletic games, including the.
Inscriptions on the instrument closely match the names of the months that are used on calendars from in northwestern Greece and with the island of, which in antiquity was known as Corcyra.On the back of the mechanism, there are five dials: the two large displays, the and the, and three smaller indicators, the so-called Olympiad Dial, which has recently been renamed the Games dial as it did not track Olympiad years (the four-year cycle it tracks most closely is the Halieiad), the, and the.: 11The Metonic Dial is the main upper dial on the rear of the mechanism. The Metonic cycle, defined in several physical units, is 235, which is very close (to within less than 13 one-millionths) to 19 tropical years. It is therefore a convenient interval over which to convert between lunar and solar calendars. The Metonic dial covers 235 months in five rotations of the dial, following a spiral track with a follower on the pointer that keeps track of the layer of the spiral. Change from traditional naming: X is the main year axis, turns once per year with gear B1. The B axis is the axis with gears B3 and B6, while the E axis is the axis with gears E3 and E4.
Other axes on E (E1/E6 and E2/E5) are irrelevant to this table. 'Time' is the interval represented by one complete revolution of the gear.
As viewed from the front of the Mechanism. The 'natural' view is viewing the side of the Mechanism the dial/pointer in question is actually displayed on. The Greeks, being in the northern hemisphere, assumed proper daily motion of the stars was from east to west, ccw when the ecliptic and zodiac is viewed to the south. As viewed on the front of the Mechanism. ^ On average, due to epicyclic gearing causing accelerations and decelerations. ^ Being on the reverse side of the box, the 'natural' rotation is the opposite. This was the only visual pointer naturally travelling in the counter-clockwise direction.
Internal and not visible. ^ Prograde motion; retrograde is obviously the opposite direction.There are several gear ratios for each planet that result in close matches to the correct values for synodic periods of the planets and the Sun. The ones chosen above seem to provide good accuracy with reasonable tooth counts, but the specific gears that may have been used are, and probably will remain, unknown. Known gear scheme. A hypothetical schematic representation of the gearing of the Antikythera Mechanism, including the 2012 published interpretation of existing gearing, gearing added to complete known functions, and proposed gearing to accomplish additional functions, namely true sun pointer and pointers for the five then-known planets, as proposed by Freeth and Jones, 2012. Based also upon similar drawing in the Freeth 2006 Supplement and Wright 2005, Epicycles Part 2.
Proposed (as opposed to known from the artefact) gearing crosshatched. It is very probable that there were planetary dials, as the complicated motions and periodicities of all planets are mentioned in the manual of the mechanism.
The exact position and mechanisms for the gears of the planets is not known. There is no coaxial system but only for the Moon. Fragment D that is an epicycloidal system is considered as a planetary gear for Jupiter (Moussas, 2011, 2012, 2014) or a gear for the motion of the Sun (University of Thessaloniki group).The Sun gear is operated from the hand-operated crank (connected to gear a1, driving the large four-spoked mean Sun gear, b1) and in turn drives the rest of the gear sets. The Sun gear is b1/b2 and b2 has 64 teeth. It directly drives the date/mean sun pointer (there may have been a second, 'true sun' pointer that displayed the Sun's elliptical anomaly; it is discussed below in the Freeth reconstruction).
In this discussion, reference is to modelled rotational period of various pointers and indicators; they all assume the input rotation of the b1 gear of 360 degrees, corresponding with one tropical year, and are computed solely on the basis of the gear ratios of the gears named.The Moon train starts with gear b1 and proceeds through c1, c2, d1, d2, e2, e5, k1, k2, e6, e1, and b3 to the Moon pointer on the front face. The gears k1 and k2 form an; they are an identical pair of gears that don't mesh, but rather, they operate face-to-face, with a short pin on k1 inserted into a slot in k2. The two gears have different centres of rotation, so the pin must move back and forth in the slot. That increases and decreases the radius at which k2 is driven, also necessarily varying its angular velocity (presuming the velocity of k1 is even) faster in some parts of the rotation than others.
Over an entire revolution the average velocities are the same, but the fast-slow variation models the effects of the elliptical orbit of the Moon, in consequence of. The modelled rotational period of the Moon pointer (averaged over a year) is 27.321 days, compared to the modern length of a lunar sidereal month of 27.321661 days.
As mentioned, the pin/slot driving of the k1/k2 gears varies the displacement over a year's time, and the mounting of those two gears on the e3 gear supplies a precessional advancement to the ellipticity modelling with a period of 8.8826 years, compared with the current value of precession period of the of 8.85 years.The system also models the. The Moon pointer holds a shaft along its length, on which is mounted a small gear named r, which meshes to the Sun pointer at B0 (the connection between B0 and the rest of B is not visible in the original mechanism, so whether b0 is the current date/mean Sun pointer or a hypothetical true Sun pointer is not known). The gear rides around the dial with the Moon, but is also geared to the Sun — the effect is to perform a operation, so the gear turns at the synodic month period, measuring in effect, the angle of the difference between the Sun and Moon pointers. The gear drives a small ball that appears through an opening in the Moon pointer's face, painted longitudinally half white and half black, displaying the phases pictorially. It turns with a modelled rotational period of 29.53 days; the modern value for the synodic month is 29.530589 days.The train is driven by the drive train b1, b2, l1, l2, m1, m2, and n1, which is connected to the pointer. The modelled rotational period of the pointer is the length of the 6939.5 days (over the whole five-rotation spiral), while the modern value for the Metonic cycle is 6939.69 days.The train is driven by b1, b2, l1, l2, m1, m2, n1, n2, and o1, which mounts the pointer.
It has a computed modelled rotational period of exactly four years, as expected. Incidentally, it is the only pointer on the mechanism that rotates counter-clockwise; all of the others rotate clockwise.The train is driven by b1, b2, l1, l2, m1, m2, n1, n3, p1, p2, and q1, which mounts the pointer. It has a computed modelled rotational period of 27758 days, while the modern value is 27758.8 days.The train is driven by b1, b2, l1, l2, m1, m3, e3, e4, f1, f2, and g1, which mounts the pointer. The modelled rotational period of the Saros pointer is 1646.3 days (in four rotations along the spiral pointer track); the modern value is 1646.33 days.The train is driven by b1, b2, l1, l2, m1, m3, e3, e4, f1, f2, g1, g2, h1, h2, and i1, which mounts the pointer. The modelled rotational period of the Exeligmos pointer is 19,756 days; the modern value is 19755.96 days.Apparently, gears m3, n1-3, p1-2, and q1 did not survive in the wreckage. The functions of the pointers were deduced from the remains of the dials on the back face, and reasonable, appropriate gearage to fulfill the functions was proposed, and is generally accepted. Proposed gear schemes Because of the large space between the mean Sun gear and the front of the case and the size of and mechanical features on the mean Sun gear it is very likely that the mechanism contained further gearing that either has been lost in or subsequent to the shipwreck or was removed before being loaded onto the ship.
This lack of evidence and nature of the front part of the mechanism has led to numerous attempts to emulate what the Greeks of the period would have done and, of course, because of the lack of evidence many solutions have been put forward. Freeth et al. Proposalwas the first person to design and build a with not only the known mechanism, but also, with his emulation of a potential system.
He suggested that along with the lunar anomaly, adjustments would have been made for the deeper, more basic solar anomaly (known as the 'first anomaly'). He included pointers for this 'true sun', Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn, in addition to the known 'mean sun' (current time) and lunar pointers.Evans, Carman, and Thorndike published a solution with significant differences from Wright's. Their proposal centred on what they observed as irregular spacing of the inscriptions on the front dial face, which to them seemed to indicate an off-centre sun indicator arrangement; this would simplify the mechanism by removing the need to simulate the solar anomaly. They also suggested that rather than accurate planetary indication (rendered impossible by the offset inscriptions) there would be simple dials for each individual planet showing information such as key events in the cycle of planet, initial and final appearances in the night sky, and apparent direction changes. This system would lead to a much simplified gear system, with much reduced forces and complexity, as compared to Wright's model.Their proposal used simple meshed gear trains and accounted for the previously unexplained 63 toothed gear in fragment D.
They proposed two face plate layouts, one with evenly spaced dials, and another with a gap in the top of the face to account for criticism regarding their not using the apparent fixtures on the b1 gear. They proposed that rather than bearings and pillars for gears and axles, they simply held weather and seasonal icons to be displayed through a window.In a paper published in 2012 Carman, Thorndike, and Evans also proposed a system of epicyclic gearing with pin and slot followers.Freeth and Jones published their proposal in 2012 after extensive research and work. They came up with a compact and feasible solution to the question of planetary indication. They also propose indicating the solar anomaly (that is, the sun's apparent position in the zodiac dial) on a separate pointer from the date pointer, which indicates the mean position of the Sun, as well as the date on the month dial. If the two dials are synchronised correctly, their front panel display is essentially the same as Wright's. Unlike Wright's model however, this model has not been built physically, and is only a 3-D computer model.
Internal gearing relationships of the Antikythera Mechanism, based on the Freeth and Jones proposalThe system to synthesise the solar anomaly is very similar to that used in Wright's proposal. Three gears, one fixed in the centre of the b1 gear and attached to the Sun spindle, the second fixed on one of the spokes (in their proposal the one on the bottom left) acting as an idle gear, and the final positioned next to that one, the final gear is fitted with an offset pin and, over said pin, an arm with a slot that in turn, is attached to the sun spindle, inducing anomaly as the mean Sun wheel turns.The inferior planet mechanism includes the Sun (treated as a planet in this context), Mercury, and Venus. For each of the three systems there is an epicyclic gear whose axis is mounted on b1, thus the basic frequency is the Earth year (as it is, in truth, for epicyclic motion in the Sun and all the planets—excepting only the Moon). Each meshes with a gear grounded to the mechanism frame.
Each has a pin mounted, potentially on an extension of one side of the gear that enlarges the gear, but doesn't interfere with the teeth; in some cases the needed distance between the gear's centre and the pin is farther than the radius of the gear itself. A bar with a slot along its length extends from the pin toward the appropriate coaxial tube, at whose other end is the object pointer, out in front of the front dials. The bars could have been full gears, although there is no need for the waste of metal, since the only working part is the slot. Also, using the bars avoids interference between the three mechanisms, each of which are set on one of the four spokes of b1.
Thus there is one new grounded gear (one was identified in the wreckage, and the second is shared by two of the planets), one gear used to reverse the direction of the sun anomaly, three epicyclic gears and three bars/coaxial tubes/pointers, which would qualify as another gear each. Five gears and three slotted bars in all.The superior planet systems—Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn—all follow the same general principle of the lunar anomaly mechanism. Similar to the inferior systems, each has a gear whose centre pivot is on an extension of b1, and which meshes with a grounded gear. It presents a pin and a centre pivot for the epicyclic gear which has a slot for the pin, and which meshes with a gear fixed to a coaxial tube and thence to the pointer. Each of the three mechanisms can fit within a quadrant of the b1 extension, and they are thus all on a single plane parallel with the front dial plate. Each one uses a ground gear, a driving gear, a driven gear, and a gear/coaxial tube/pointer, thus, twelve gears additional in all.In total, there are eight coaxial spindles of various nested sizes to transfer the rotations in the mechanism to the eight pointers.
So in all, there are 30 original gears, seven gears added to complete calendar functionality, 17 gears and three slotted bars to support the six new pointers, for a grand total of 54 gears, three bars, and eight pointers in Freeth and Jones' design.On the visual representation Freeth supplies in the paper, the pointers on the front zodiac dial have small, round identifying stones. He mentions a quote from an ancient papyrus.a voice comes to you speaking. Let the stars be set upon the board in accordance with their nature except for the Sun and Moon. And let the Sun be golden, the Moon silver, Kronos Saturn of obsidian, Ares Mars of reddish onyx, Aphrodite Venus lapis lazuli veined with gold, Hermes Mercury turquoise; let Zeus Jupiter be of (whitish?) stone, crystalline (?). Accuracy Investigations by Freeth and Jones reveal that their simulated mechanism is not particularly accurate, the Mars pointer being up to 38° off at times (these inaccuracies occur at the nodal points of Mars' retrograde motion, and the error recedes at other locations in the orbit). This is not due to inaccuracies in gearing ratios in the mechanism, but rather to inadequacies in the Greek theory of planetary movements. Lin, Jian-Liang; Yan, Hong-Sen (2016).
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The Forgotten Revolution: How Science Was Born in 300 BC and Why It Had To Be Reborn. Berlin: Springer. Steele, J. Observations and Predictions of Eclipse Times by Early Astronomers. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic.
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The general goal of the games is to create a series of Rube Goldberg devices: arrange a given collection of objects in a needlessly complex fashion so as to perform some simple task (e.g., 'put the ball into a box' or 'start a mixer & turn on a fan'). Available objects ranged from simple ropes and pulleys to electrical generators, bowling balls, and even cats and mice to humans, most of which had specific interactions with or reactions to other objects (for example, mice will run towards nearby cheese). The levels usually have some fixed objects that cannot be moved by the player, and so the only way to solve the puzzle is carefully arrange the given objects around the fixed items.
There is also a 'freeform' option that allows the user to 'play' with all the objects with no set goal or to also build their own puzzles with goals for other players to attempt to solve.Notably, the games simulated not only the physical interactions between objects, but also ambient effects like varying air pressure and gravity. The engine does not use a random number generator in its simulation of physics, assuring that the results for any given 'machine' are reproducible.
There are also hints. (For example 'Place the toaster here' or 'We need to move that cat with a conveyor belt').