YouTube Channel by Nguyen Duc Thang is brimming with awesome mechanical models in action

Nguyen Duc Thang is a mechanical engineer with doctorate located in Hue City, Vietnam.

He has used Autodesk Inventor 2008 to create all a YouTube channel FILLED with animated mechanisms. Shown above is his model for a barrel cam mechanism in which a rotational motion is converted into linear reciprocating one.

He has models for things I've never even glimpsed as a static image, much less a moving model. Check out this Archimedean spiral gear and pin gear (below). How on earth would you accomplish something like this another way? It not only reduces the speed of the rotating axle, but does so nearly in-line with the original input motion -- and all with just two interlocking parts!

He has modeled interesting cams, gears and linkages as well as, complete machines and machine tools. This is a treasure trove for the mechanically minded. Check out Nguyen Duc Thang's YouTube Channel.

[ Thanks Michael! ]

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3D video animation clearly shows the workings of the Antikythera Mechanism

Have you heard of the Antikythera Mechanism? If so, you will enjoy this beautifully done 3D animation that shows its component parts and functions.

If you haven't heard of the the Antikythera Mechanism, it is an ancient artifact currently housed in the Greek National Archaeological Museum in Athens. The mechanism is a thin metal object that was found by divers in the wreckage of a ancient Roman ship off the coast of Greece in 1900. It was clearly a sophisticated instrument of some kind with a surprisingly modern style gear train. That alone was a startling discovery, but the exact purpose of the machine remained a mystery for a long time.

Recent studies, advances in imaging technology, and painstaking reproductions have led scholars to believe that the device was a form of mechanical computer. The elaborate gear train was used to calculate the movements of stars and planets for points in the past and the future with great accuracy. Scientists and scholars believe it was build around 87 B.C. -- making it one of the most sophisticated ancient devices in existence. According to an article on the Antikythera Mechanism in the journal Nature, its mechanical sophistication would see no equal until mechanical clocks appeared in western Europe in the fourteenth century.

For a more complete story of the Antikythera Mechanism, check out the book Decoding the Heavens: A 2,000-Year-Old Computer--and the Century-long Search to Discover Its Secrets.

[ Thanks Joseph! ]

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