{"id":27,"date":"2011-06-01T13:56:25","date_gmt":"2011-06-01T17:56:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/dadequate\/?p=27"},"modified":"2011-05-31T18:02:11","modified_gmt":"2011-05-31T22:02:11","slug":"the-lego-difference-engine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dadequate\/2011\/06\/the-lego-difference-engine.html","title":{"rendered":"The LEGO Difference Engine"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is what I make with LEGOs.<\/strong> Spaceships are my specialty.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

This is what<\/strong> Apple software engineer Andrew Carol<\/a> makes with LEGOs:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

It’s a Babbage Difference Engine<\/a>, a working model of a mid-19th century machine designed to “evaluate polynomials of the form Ax^2 + Bx + C for x=0, 1, 2, \u2026n with 3 digit results.” I wish I understood what that meant, because whatever it is, this LEGO model actually does it. It’s a mechanical calculator. You crank it and make actual mathematical calculations.<\/p>\n

Here’s a video of the engine in action<\/a>.<\/p>\n

You know what happens if you crank my<\/em> LEGO spaceships? They fall apart. But you can make “pio! pio!” noises to simulate the sweet laser gun action.<\/p>\n

Sigh.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is what I make with LEGOs. Spaceships are my specialty. This is what Apple software engineer Andrew Carol makes with LEGOs: It’s a Babbage Difference Engine, a working model of a mid-19th century machine designed to “evaluate polynomials of the form Ax^2 + Bx + C for x=0, 1, 2, \u2026n with 3 digit…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,9],"tags":[13,12,11],"class_list":["post-27","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-awesome","category-insecurity","tag-andrew-carol","tag-babbage-difference-engine","tag-lego"],"yoast_head":"\nThe LEGO Difference Engine - Dadequate<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dadequate\/2011\/06\/the-lego-difference-engine.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The LEGO Difference Engine - Dadequate\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This is what I make with LEGOs. Spaceships are my specialty. 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