An Animated Introduction to the Antikythera Mechanism: The World’s First Analog Computer from Ancient Greece

From TED-Ed comes an ani­mat­ed intro­duc­tion to the Antikythera Mech­a­nism, an ancient Greek device that dates back to the 2nd cen­tu­ry BCE. TED writes: “In 1900, Greek divers stum­bled upon a 2,000-year-old ship­wreck whose con­tents would shake our under­stand­ing of the ancient world. Among the remains were frag­ments of man­gled wood and cor­rod­ed met­al, which archae­ol­o­gists soon real­ized were parts of the old­est geared device ever dis­cov­ered — and humankind’s first com­put­er. So, how did it work?” Above, sci­ence jour­nal­ist Max G. Levy explains the inner work­ings of the Antikythera Mech­a­nism and how the Greeks put the device to use.

For those who want to take a deep­er dive into this ancient ana­log com­put­er (there’s a lot more to learn), we invite you to explore the titles in the Relat­eds sec­tion below. They’ll take you deep­er into this mar­vel of ancient engi­neer­ing.

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Relat­ed Con­tent 

How the World’s Old­est Com­put­er Worked: Recon­struct­ing the 2,200-Year-Old Antikythera Mech­a­nism

Researchers Devel­op a Dig­i­tal Mod­el of the 2,200-Year-Old Antikythera Mech­a­nism, “the World’s First Com­put­er”

A Ful­ly Func­tion­al Repli­ca of the Antikythera Mech­a­nism, the First Ana­log Com­put­er from Ancient Greece, Re-Cre­at­ed in LEGO

How the Ancient Greeks Invent­ed the First Com­put­er: An Intro­duc­tion to the Antikythera Mech­a­nism (Cir­ca 87 BC)