Knex computer at Olin College (knexcomputer.blogspot.com)

13 points by s_baar 19y ago ↗ HN

"The K'NEX calculator stands over 10 feet tall, and can perform 4 bit addition and subtraction operations in about 30 seconds. The slowest part of the operation is the user entering the balls. From there the balls trickle down, computing the result of the operation, and then sending that through a 4 bit decoder, which flips a flag that tells the user the answer. Since it is 4 bit, we can add and subtract numbers from 0 to 15."

2 comments

[ 4.4 ms ] story [ 16.1 ms ] thread

ivankirigin 19y ago ↗

Style-wise, this wooden binary adder wins: http://woodgears.ca/marbleadd/

This MIT project uses Fluidics, making computers from water: http://www.blikstein.com/paulo/projects/project_water.html

So if electrons are fire, we now have wood and water. I suppose these wind-powered walking robots complete the set: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7Ny5BYc-Fs

daniel-cussen 19y ago ↗

Those things were once cutting-edge; I believe Charles Babbage designed one in the 1830s, and Richard Feynman worked on another mechanical computer in WW2.