Math Craft Inspiration of the Week: Marble Binary Calculators & Other Mechanical Computers

Since today (11/11/11) is the last 6 digit binary date this century, I thought we should look at some kinetic binary calculators.

Matthias Wandel built a beautiful 6 digit binary computer out of wood. If you want to build one, he even gives you some more information and instructions, plus the plans.

Here's a video showing it in action:

Another video with a few more details regarding its operation:

A similar device was built by Matt Donahoe and Jeff DeCew out of LEGO. It can add and subtract 4 bit numbers. You can read more about it here.

A quick video showing it in motion:

Andrew Carol has built a couple more complicated mechanical computers out of LEGO. He built one based off the Antikythera mechanism, which was a analog computer for calculating various astronomical dates. Andrew provides more details here.   

He also built one based off Charles Babbage's Difference Engine, a design for a mechanical computer from the 1800s that could calculate 7th order polynomials to 31 digits of accuracy. More details on the LEGO version can be seen here.  

The LEGO Antikythera mechanism:

The LEGO Difference Engine:

What do you think of these mechanical computers? Does anyone want to build the Marble Adding Machine? I know I'd love to see someone try! 

Have a great weekend and if you create any math-related art, please share with all of us on the corkboard. If you find something cool on the web please share that as well.  I hope to share community content in a post on Monday.