Jo Marchant: Decoding the Heavens video

Posted by Kevin Houston on Aug 25, 2011 in History of Mathematics, video | 0 comments

Haven’t had much time to compose a blog entry as I’ve been trying to organize the final bits of advertising and uploading for the DVD. I’m hoping I will have a boxful of copies by the end of the week ready for the launch at the CETL-MSOR Conference at the start of September – I’m giving my talk on the 6th.

Also, I’ve been trying to get some research done which at the moment involves finishing two papers and trying to understand a whole new area of mathematics (more on that some other time). Furthermore, I’ve got two PhD students who will be submitting their theses this coming year so I have to read some drafts to make sure they have results worthy of publication.

Hence if you think academics are not busy during university holidays then think again.

Anyhow, I seem to have written more than I expected. All I wanted to show you was a video:

The Antikythera Mechanism is fascinating example of the sophistication of ancient Greek/Roman mathematics and engineering. A geared “clockwork” mechanism from around the first century BC is almost too impossible to believe. Here’s a video about it: