Hatrack River Forum: A Lego Computer

This is topic A Lego Computer in forum Books, Films, Food and Culture at Hatrack River Forum.

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Posted by peterh (Member # 5208) on :

Somebody's built a difference engine computer using legos.

I don't undertand the math behind it, but it looks cool...

Posted by twinky (Member # 693) on :

Awesome. [Big Grin]

Posted by smitty (Member # 8855) on :

That difference math thing is pretty sweet! How come I didn't learn that in my umpteen math classes? I feel cheated!

Posted by HollowEarth (Member # 2586) on :

87.6% of the cool stuff isn't taught in classes.

Posted by Advent 115 (Member # 8914) on :

Wow. I haven't seen anything that cool made out of legos since the last time I saw the picture of the fullscale lego nuclear bomb model of the "little boy".

Posted by mistaben (Member # 8721) on :

That's amazing.

But not quite as amazing as the Lego transistor I was hoping to see...

Posted by King of Men (Member # 6684) on :

Wow, that is truly amazing. I am impressed. I wonder, though : How does this work for non-integer values of the polynomial argument? I was under the impression that Babbage's engine would be able to handle such things also. And units are rather large steps if you're going for interpolation.

Posted by Dagonee (Member # 5818) on :

quote:
How does this work for non-integer values of the polynomial argument? I was under the impression that Babbage's engine would be able to handle such things also. And units are rather large steps if you're going for interpolation.

It works to 3 or 4 digits. I don't see any reason the lowest order digit has to be the unit digit. It could easily be non-integer values - tenths, hundredths, and thousandths, for instance.

With only 3 or 4 digits it's not that practical, but it is cool.

Posted by King of Men (Member # 6684) on :

Ah, you're right, I see now.

Incidentally, is there any particular reason you stopped posting in the 'Speaking of intelligent design' thread? I thought we were having an extremely interesting discussion.

Posted by Teshi (Member # 5024) on :

Awesome.

quote:
87.6% of the cool stuff isn't taught in classes.

They definately need to make classes that teach the cool stuff.

Posted by Dagonee (Member # 5818) on :

quote:
Incidentally, is there any particular reason you stopped posting in the 'Speaking of intelligent design' thread? I thought we were having an extremely interesting discussion.

I haven't had time to formulate my thoughts on that subject. Right now I'm just popping in for a few minutes at a time, and that's a topic that requires careful writing.