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SUMMARY:The Antikythera Mechanism and the Mechanical Universe - Michael Ed
 munds (University of Cardiff)
DTSTART:20140527T153000Z
DTEND:20140527T163000Z
UID:TALK51970@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:David Titterington
DESCRIPTION:  How did our view of the Universe develop?  By the mid-Eighte
 enth Century the world view was of a system constrained by physical laws. 
  These laws\, if not entirely understood\, showed regularity and could be 
 handled mathematically to provide both explanation and prediction of celes
 tial phenomena.  Most of us have at least some hazy idea of the fundamenta
 l shift that came through the work of Copernicus\, Kepler\, Galileo and Ne
 wton.  The idea of a “Mechanical Universe” tends to be associated with
  these Sixteenth and Seventeenth Century pioneers.  It remains a useful 
 – and perhaps comforting – analogy.  Yet recent investigations based a
 round the Antikythera Mechanism\, an ancient Greek artefact from around 10
 0 BC\, reinforce a view that the “Mechanical” conception has been arou
 nd for a much longer time – indeed certainly as far back as the third ce
 ntury BC.\n   The discovery of the structure and functions of the Antikyth
 era Mechanism will be described\, and a strong claim (based on literary re
 ferences) will be made that knowledge of mechanical representations of the
  Universe was critical in the development of cosmology and philosophy.  Th
 ere is evidence that the technology persisted until its spectacular and ra
 ther sudden re-appearance in Western Europe around 1300 AD.  From then on 
 it is not hard to chart a path through the astronomical clocks of the 16th
  Century to Kepler’s aim (expressed in a 1605 letter) to “show that th
 e heavenly machine is not a kind of divine\, live being\, but a kind of cl
 ockwork…”.  Even so\, is mechanical analogy still useful in the 21st C
 entury?\n
LOCATION:Sackler Lecture Theatre\, IoA (tea at 4.00 pm)
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