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K'nex Mechanical Computer (2011) [video]
- deleted 12y ago[deleted]
- erroneousfunk 12y agoA couple of students from Olin College did this back in 2006/2007 with a 4-bit adder, no electricity, no motors: http://knexcomputer.blogspot.com/ http://knexcomputer.blogspot.com/ It's up in the publicly-accessible library in Needham, MA if you live nearby and want to check it out!
- gamegoblin 12y agoSeems like a slightly more complex (has a binary -> decimal decoder) of this [1] which was made around the same time but is a bit easier to see how it operates (since it isn't made of K'nex) [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GcDshWmhF4A https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GcDshWmhF4A I guess the big difference is the ball-drop adders don't require electricity or motors for one calculation, but you need some method (human or otherwise) to move the balls back to the top. Also you can only carry out calculation downwards, so your CPU might wind up being a few hundred meters tall! Not to disparage the ball-drop adders at all, just pointing out the differences.
- mdonahoe 12y agoI made that project. The main benefit of balls is that the friction doesn't add up like it does with connected rods and gears.
- rumham 12y agoThis is pretty impressive. I can't imagine how much my fingers would hurt after building that thing.
- deleted 12y ago[deleted]
- swordswinger12 12y agoI went to high school with this guy!