User:Curtis Buxton/sandbox

Using the sandbox is Difficult because I don't know where to look and see what you will see when I try and submit the assignment...~

Antikythera Mechanism
Antikythera Mechanism

References: Curtis Buxton (talk) 15:59, 9 March 2018 (UTC)
 * http://www.nature.com.libproxy.mst.edu/articles/nature05357
 * http://um9mh3ku7s.search.serialssolutions.com.libproxy.mst.edu/?url_ver=Z39.88-2003&ctx_ver=Z39.88-2003&ctx_enc=info:ofi/enc:UTF-8&rft_id=info:doi/10.1179%2f030801807X163670&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:journal&rft.genre=article&rft.aulast=Wright&rft.aufirst=M.T.&rft.issn=03080188&rft.volume=32&rft.issue=1&rft.date=2007-03&rft.spage=27&rft.epage=43&rft.pages=27-43&rft.artnum=&rft.title=Interdisciplinary+Science+Reviews&rft.atitle=The+Antikythera+Mechanism+reconsidered&rfr_id=info:sid/Elsevier:Scopus
 * https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/ancient-astronomical-calculator-even-older-we-thought-180953472/

Origin
The Antikythera mechanism is generally referred to as the first known analogue computer. The quality and complexity of the mechanism's manufacture suggests that it has undiscovered predecessors made during the Hellenistic period. Its construction relied on theories of astronomy and mathematics developed by Greek astronomers, and it is estimated to have been created around the late second 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. Jacques Cousteau 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 compositional analysis, but it is believed that the device was made of a low-tin bronze alloy (of approximately 95% copper, 5% tin). Its instructions were composed in Koine Greek.

In 2008, continued research by the Antikythera Mechanism Research Project suggested that the concept for the mechanism may have originated in the colonies of Corinth, since they identified the calendar on the Metonic Spiral as coming from Corinth or one of its colonies in Northwest Greece or Sicily. Syracuse was a colony of Corinth and the home of Archimedes, 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 Pergamon, home of the Library of Pergamum. With its many scrolls of art and science, it was second in importance only to the Library of Alexandria during the Hellenistic period.

The ship carrying the device also contained vases in the Rhodian style, leading to a hypothesis that it was constructed at an academy founded by Stoic philosopher Posidonius on that Greek island. Rhodes was a busy trading port in antiquity and a centre of astronomy and mechanical engineering, home to astronomer Hipparchus 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 Parapegma 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.

Proposed Article Edits
The earliest recorded account of any such device in ancient times can be found in the writings of Cicero (Cicero, M.T. De Re Publica p.41); in which he describes a globe, created by Archimedes of Syracuse, which included the sun, moon and known planets, and was able to, through a system of gears and dials, too show the positions of the planets in the night sky and predict the phases of the moon. While this device described as a globe in Cicero's account does not precisely match the description of the Antikythera device itself, it does exhibit the same function and should be considered an earlier working model of the device (much akin to a laptop being a later model of the first desktop/home PC). This device so impressed Cicero that he said of its inventor, "the famous Sicilian had been endowed with greater genius than one would imagine it possible for a human being to possess." (Cicero, M.T. De Re Publica p. 41)Jgabe (talk) 16:30, 13 March 2018 (UTC)

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 Saros Dial 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, and was probably constructed within a generation of the shipwreck.

Further dives are being undertaken in the hope of discovering more of the mechanism.

Essentially we are not wanting to attribute the creation of the Antikythera Mechanism to Archimedes himself but rather, that the theory and logic behind how the mechanism operates is based upon Archimedes' derivations. But the basic premise of our argument is similar to the analogy of giving credit to whoever invented the laptop without acknowledging whoever designed each component to the PC. The Group is still narrowing down its sources to be able cite and reference properly. Currently Gabe didn't bring his computer so it appears that he didn't contribute to this particular assignment but he has been a big help in finding multiple sources of information. The technology produced by Archimedes such as the Archimedes Sphere and Heat Ray along with the Water Screw are all ingenious concepts. This is how we intend to relate the Antikythera to Archimedes. The amount of math and derivation that would have been required in order to even be able to create such a device is one of the key factors that leads us to believe that Archimedes has a hand in it. Curtis Buxton (talk) 16:47, 9 March 2018 (UTC)

The earliest recorded account of any such device in antiquity can be found in the writings of Cicero (Cicero, M.T. De Re Publica p.41); in which he describes a globe, created by Archimedes of Syracuse, which included the sun, moon and known planets, and was able to, thru a system of gears and dials, too show the positions of the planets in the night sky and predict the phases of the moon. While this device described as a globe in Cicero's account does not precisely match the description of the Antikythera device itself, it does exhibit the same function and should be considered an earlier working model of the device (much akin to a laptop being a later model of the first desktop/home PC). This device so impressed Cicero that he said of its inventor, "the famous Sicilian had been endowed with greater genius than one would imagine it possible for a human being to possess." (Cicero, M.T. De Re Publica p. 41)~

Peer Review by Cole Phinney (talk) 17:56, 18 March 2018 (UTC)
The proposed edits for the article do a very good job of explaining how the idea of the antikythera mechanism was created by explaining different forerunners to it. Your edits also do a better job explaining where experts think the device was created because of the uncertainty of its origin. I like how you guys are going to address the fact that there is uncertainty on if Archimedes actually created the antikythera mechanism. Your sources are reliable, as you are using Cicero as one of your sources and he was possibly around during the time of the creation of the device. Some things you guys could do is integrate your edits with the copy and pasted article section above it, because it is hard to get a flow of how your article will be especially with the ship wreck section. I'm not sure if the analogy "much akin to a laptop being a later model of the first desktop/home PC" should be included. Although it is very helpful to understanding what exactly you're trying to say, I think that it could be worded a little differently to sound more professionally. One suggestion I have is if it came from an expert source, you could say "[This expert] has compared the globe to [the analogy]". Make sure that you guys add wiki links to key words that you add before you move into the final drafting. Overall, it looks like you guys are following the plan that you have set for yourselves and are making much needed improvements to your chose article. Cole Phinney (talk) 18:41, 18 March 2018 (UTC)

Response to Peer Review
From our Peer Review feedback the group is intending on taking the advice of adding in some hyperlinks and potentially rearranging our information into the existing paragraphs so that the article as a whole flows and transitions its ideas smoother. However, the group thinks that the analogy about the PC that is included gives a historical context that is similar to the idea of what were talking about without trying to prove one side or the other. As far as having the analogy come from an expert source, the group feel that it is unnecessary simply because it is just an analogy to give another more modern example to benefit the reader in their own understanding of what the article is saying.

Adding wiki links was a very good idea, and we will be incorporating it moving forward. The analogy, which was our own, will respectfully remain just to add context to our addition. Moving forward we will be focusing on the mathematics and geometry used in the device, which goes well beyond basic trigonometry and delves into algebraic ideas (i.e. A slot and pin used to calculate retrograde motion).Jgabe (talk) 15:47, 23 March 2018 (UTC)

From here the group intends on expanding more on [Accuracy] and [Gearing] section of the article. The [Accuracy] section is rather small and the group feel as though it could be expanded. The [Gearing] section doesn't include very much about the "Pin and Slot" mechanism used to create the retrograde motion of mars and several other components of the Antikythera Mechanism. This will build upon our original idea because of the math used in order to create this type of gear train set-up. Curtis Buxton (talk) 15:24, 23 March 2018 (UTC)

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. This is not due to inaccuracies in gearing ratios in the mechanism, but rather to inadequacies in the Greek theory. The accuracy could not have been improved until first Ptolemy put forth his Planetary Hypotheses in the second half of the second century AD and then the introduction of Kepler's Second Law in the early 17th century.

"In short, the Antikythera Mechanism was a machine designed to predict celestial phenomena according to the sophisticated astronomical theories current in its day, the sole witness to a lost history of brilliant engineering, a conception of pure genius, one of the great wonders of the ancient world—but it didn’t really work very well!"

In addition to theoretical accuracy, there is the matter of mechanical accuracy. Freeth and Jones note that the inevitable "looseness" in the mechanism due to the hand-built gears, with their triangular teeth and the frictions between gears, and in bearing surfaces, probably would have swamped the finer solar and lunar correction mechanisms built into it:

"Though the engineering was remarkable for its era, recent research indicates that its design conception exceeded the engineering precision of its manufacture by a wide margin—with considerable cumulative inaccuracies in the gear trains, which would have cancelled out many of the subtle anomalies built into its design."

While the device itself may have struggled with inaccuracies due to the triangular teeth being hand made, the calculations used and the technology implemented to create the elliptical paths of the planets and retrograde motion of the moon and Mars by using a clockwork type gear train with the addition of a pin and slot mechanism predated that of the first known clocks found in antiquity in Medieval Europe by more than 1000 years. (Insert Citation-pg.40 Jo Marchant "Decoding the Heavens") Archimedes development of the approximate value of pi and his theory of centers of gravity along with the steps he made towards developing the calculus (Insert citation-pg.1 netz ans noel "the archimedes codex") all suggest that the Greeks had access to more than enough mathematical knowledge beyond that of just Babylonian algebra in order to be able to model the elliptical nature of planetary motion.

Of special delight to physicists, the Moon mechanism uses a special train of bronze gears, two of them linked with a slightly offset axis, to indicate the position and phase of the moon. As is known today from Kepler's Laws of Planetary Motion, the moon travels at different speeds as it orbits the Earth, and this speed differential is modeled by the Antikythera Mechanism, even though the ancient Greeks were not aware of the actual elliptical shape of the orbit.

Significance and Application
Cicero records an account of such a device being used to show that an eclipse not only occurred at fixed times, but that those times could be predicted. This significance is further rooted out in his same account when he tells of a story of the Athenian War in which an eclipse came about during battle and while the common soldiers were all a panic, Pericles (the leader), by use of knowledge gleaned from such a device was able to waylay the panic by explaining that this was not witchcraft or a bad omen, rather just the normal movement of the moon across the fixed sun. If knowledge is truly equated to power, then one who could master the movements of the cosmos could easily position themselves as being at the pinnacle of power in ancient times.

The technological significance alone of this device is astonishing. Prior to this device, the differentiated gear used in its design wasn't thought to of been used in an type of known production until it was use in Great Britain in the 18th century for use in specialized clock gears. Sine the most conservative estimates of the age of this device place it over a century BCE, just the use of such a differentiated gear has enormous application as to what we think we know of the advances of ancient technology.Jgabe (talk) 15:15, 13 April 2018 (UTC)

Notable Shipwreck
Archaeologist Valerios Stais discovered one of the most notable instruments of time keeping and prediction of celestial events off the coast of the Greek island Antikythera On May 17th, 1902. The device, known as the Antikythera Mechanism is perhaps the earliest account of what would be known as today as an analog computer and the technology it encompasses predates any other recorded description by nearly hundreds and thousands of years.Curtis Buxton (talk) 15:36, 13 April 2018 (UTC)