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Watch an Apple Engineer Recreate a 2,000-Year Old Computer Using Legos (fastcodesign.com)
20 points by cliffkuang 5664 days ago
2 comments

I must be missing something very fundamental here, so bear with me. On the first gearbox he showcases, the one that multiples by 5/19's, I don't understand how you can combine a set of gears that multiples by 5, with another set that multiples by 3/5 to get 19/5s. 19 appears to be prime, so I don't see how any combination of multiplying/dividing 5's and 3's could results in any number divisible by 19. Does the differential itself have a ratio of teeth of 19/15 (53/519/15 = 19/5?) or is there another key piece I'm missing?

Otherwise, very impressive. I love it.

An awesome feat - So who is selling this as a kit, it would be the ultimate geek present.
I'll bet people would pay $250+ for that.