Earliest calculator ‘amazingly accurate’

AN ANCIENT astronomical calculator made at the end of the 2nd century BC was amazingly accurate and more complex than any instrument for the next 1,000 years, scientists have said.

The Antikythera Mechanism is the earliest known device to contain an intricate set of gear wheels. It was retrieved from a shipwreck off the Greek island of Antikythera in 1901, but until now its function has been a mystery.

Although the remains are fragmented in 82 brass pieces, scientists from Britain, Greece and the US have reconstructed a model of it using high-resolution tomography — production of precision X-rays.

Professor Mike Edmunds of Cardiff University in Wales said it could be described as the first known calculator. It could add, multiply, divide and subtract. It could also align the number of lunar months with years and display where the sun and moon were in the zodiac.

Mr Edmunds and his colleagues discovered it had a dial that predicted when there was likely to be a lunar or solar eclipse. It also took into account the elliptical orbit of the moon.