Time-Slip Artifacts: Modern Objects in the Ancient World - Volume 1

The Antikythera mechanism deserves a dedicated episode all to itself.

In modern times, an attempt to replicate this ancient device hit a major snag when an unusual number appeared on one of the gears—a "half" number, to be precise.

After much deliberation and numerous mathematical computations, it was discovered that this half number was crucial for accurately timing the moon's rotations and predicting eclipses.

The secret lay in a tiny switch within the mechanism that instructed another gear to rotate at a different rate, slowing it down to achieve the exact half-tooth needed.

How do you make half a tooth on a gear? The ancients knew long before we did.

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