Difference Engine made from Lego!

[dogjones]

Check this page out - it is pleasing!

(snip)

Babbage's design could evaluate 7th order polynomials to 31 digits of accuracy. I set out to build a working Difference Engine using LEGO parts which could compute 2nd or 3rd order polynomials to 3 or 4 digits.

 

[daenku32]

What's a "polynomial", "Difference Engine"? I learned math in another language.

I guess I need to jump to wikipedia again..

 

[epepke]

That's cool.

For about 20 years, I've wanted to make a UTM from LEGOs, but damn, those gears and racks are expensive.

 

[Imrational]

Crap, and to think all I ever built out of legos were toy spaceships!

 

[Jon the Geek]

Me to my boss: I have a new project for you and James (his son, with whom he builds many Lego projects): http://acarol.woz.org/
My boss: Screw James, let's make that right now!

Making one of these seems like a *great* project for young Lego geeks to me, since it can help teach both simple logic and the basics of how a computer works.

 

[HighRiser]

Epepke has a good point about cost. I re-discovered LEGO last year while recovering from a torn knee ligament and LEGO addiction has proven to be more expensive than the medical bills.

I've come up with a pretty efficient adder-subtracter differential system for driving link belts but it pales in comparison with Andy Carol's engine.