Antikythera Mechanism 4+

Derwent Studios

Designed for iPad

    • 4.3 • 24 Ratings
    • $1.99

Screenshots

Description

This is a full working simulation of the world's first computer: the Antikythera Mechanism, an ancient Greek device accidentally discovered a century ago on an extraordinary shipwreck.

Bringing the mechanism back to life, this special app allows the user to investigate in great detail how the ancients viewed the cosmos.

The crank input can be controlled by the point slider at the bottom, enabling clockwise and anti-clockwise motion at varying speeds. Use the swipe rotate and pinch zoom features to navigate in and around the mechanism. Another point slide is also available at the side for panning vertically. The Calendar dial can be rotated using the + - controls on the bottom left of the screen.

Two viewing modes are available for selection at the top; the external mode offers a detailed look at all the dials and the internal mode offers a close inspection of the gear arrangements which drive all eight outputs.

WARNING: Due to the high graphics requirements to run this app, please consider that this app only runs smoothly on the latest three generations of iPhone and only the latest two generations of iPad.

What’s New

Version 5.0

1) The app now incorporates within the mechanism the planet indicators of Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn along with the Sun and Moon indicators. The conjectural used gearing is based on the paper: 'The Cosmos in the Antikythera Mechanism' written by Tony Freeth and Alexander Jones, 2012.
2) Colour rendering has been addressed and the viewing of the inscriptions is improved.
4) Top left button allows the user to select a date between 01/01/1900 and 01/01/2051 where the planetary alignments will be shown for that specific date.
5) Please note that app may not work on iPhones older than 3 generations and iPads older than 2 generations.

Ratings and Reviews

4.3 out of 5
24 Ratings

24 Ratings

BaltimoreDave ,

Pretty cool

A little bit of historical background information would be nice as well as description of the functionality and just how advanced this device was.

Nicely executed.

Developer Response ,

Hi BaltimoreDave, thank you for your feedback. Description, functionality, origin and historical background can now be found on our website: antikytheramechanism.com

Dent De Leon ,

Thank you

In a Getty Museum video it was mentioned there are Antikythera mechanism apps for the iPhone. Thus I came looking for this app. The simulation helps me understand aspects of the mechanism I couldn’t learn from drawings, articles and videos. I finally understand how the moon phase display works. I documented technology for Industry and the military for 20 years; I worked from engineering prints, aerospace assembly drawings, physical prototypes and 3-D computer models to understand and explain mechanisms/processes to our clients. This app is a treasure trove of information. The interior and exterior views are all I could have hoped for. I’ve put this app into a folder labeled Fun, along with an Enigma simulator, which shows you my idea of fun :)

Developer Response ,

Thank you Sir

BethKUSA ,

Explodenate!

Awesome app! Well done!

Some thoughts:

1) render the faces of the teeth in slightly different colors. If you zoom in then the white just makes it really hard to see.

2) the ability to "explode" the device - stretch all the parts (or the major components) out in the direction of the axis of rotation - would be helpful to see inside it.

3) there are multiple dials, it would be great if one could click on a single dial (or toggle an option or something) and make transparent all the other parts of the mechanism. So a user could see and understand just the gears that drive (say) the Olympic Games pointer and make all the other parts translucent. If a differential is in use then coloring each path differently would help. The "visible body" app does this well.

4) rotation about all axes would be helpful.

5) some way to see the operation of the pin and slot gear that handles the lunar inequality would be useful.

6) A big ask but a tutorial or guide to give the user an understanding about how each part works would complete this. The "4D" app for explaining the tesseract is excellent for this.

App Privacy

The developer, Derwent Studios, has not provided details about its privacy practices and handling of data to Apple. For more information, see the developer’s privacy policy.

No Details Provided

The developer will be required to provide privacy details when they submit their next app update.

Supports

  • Family Sharing

    Up to six family members can use this app with Family Sharing enabled.

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