The Antikythera mechanism is more valuable than Mona Lisa!
says professor Michael Edmunds from Cardiff University, who led a 2006 study of the mechanism!
Honestly, this is one of the most mysterious, extraordinary, fascinating & interesting machines I’ve ever seen in my life! The Antikythera mechanism is one of the most remarkable inventions of the ancient world that came to light in 1900 when a Greek Sponge diver discovered the wreck of an ancient Greek or Roman cargo ship that had sunk off the Greek island of Antikythera around 80 B.C.E!
We Humans, being a couple of feet high, weighing barely a quintal are capable of making & building things million times bigger & heavier than us & we have proved it. Hats off to those engineers who have built them ! So lets have a look at the top 10 biggest machines of all time which we’ve never imagined of !
These are the machines which are so big that you might have to walk a kilometre or so to view them completely. So get ready to get your jaw drop…! The countdown begins… more “The Top 10 Biggest Machines in the World !”
Human being started using animals to carry load when it exceeded his carrying capacity. Then he started building machines to carry even more load & to transport faster. Today huge trucks carry massive amounts of load & the best example is the biggest truck in the world – The BelAZ 75710 which can carry 450 tons of dirt. Still, there was something left, something to be made to carry these massive rockets & space shuttles. So how are they transported ? The answer is – CRAWLER a true engineering marvel ! more “Crawler – The Rocket Transport !”
Human started with just wheels for travelling & transportation purposes at first. Then came bikes, cars & trains which could be driven on land. The next difficulty was to overcome the vast oceans & seas which led to invention of ships. Engineers are still finding ways to make today’s vehicles more better & efficient even though we have achieved success in almost every mode of travelling & transportation. One of the extraordinary machine in history of vehicles is hovercraft. Lets see how does a hovercraft work ?more “How does a hovercraft work ? | Design & Application”
It’s big… no it’s bigger… sorry it’s the BIGGEST truck in the world ! Whenever I see it, it gives me a feeling like the truck is trying to say me – GET THE HELL OUT OF MY WAY !!! You probably enjoyed the childhood by making the construction scenes, playing with the trucks making sounds – Vroom broom…! Our favorite among the collection of toys were the backhoe loader(well known as JCB) & the dump truck because they were different from others. We love to fill the bed with mud, rocks & made mechanical voices while dumping it.
In real world dump trucks are used to haul loads of rocks, dirt, sand, coal etc. And obviously the more a dump truck can carry, the less it costs the mining company per load to haul the resources. For several years the largest dump truck was the Caterpillar 797B.
Caterpillar 797B (source: flickr.com)
This massive beast was so big that it couldn’t be driven even on a highway. Instead it had to be transported in pieces & assembled at the construction site. Unbelievable, isn’t it ?
But, human nature – “never satisfies”. So the title of largest dump truck went to a new vehicle – The mighty BelAZ 75710.
Now this thing is really really at the edge of massive-ness. It is manufactured by BelAZ in Belarus. So how big is it ?
If u stand beside it, you would barely reach to the center of it’s tires or in a better way – the radius of tire is greater than your height ! Each tire costs $42,000 which also explains why this entire shit costs over $6 million !
It is as long as two buses parked end to end & believe me – it is more heavy than Airbus A380 – the world’s largest passenger airliner ! It is 20.6 metres long, 8.16 metres high, and 9.87 metres wide. The empty weight is 360 tons & it can carry 450 tons of load !
Instead of a single engine, the Siemens MMT 500 drive system is powered by two 65-litre 16-cylinder diesel engines, each with 2300 horsepower. 2 engines working together give a power of 4,600 hp – 4.6 times than the Bugatti Veyron Super Sport, the fastest car in the world !
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Now, if you are wondering why BelAZ chose electric motors to drive this thing; the company wanted to maximise fuel efficiency while also meeting tougher environmental regulations that govern vehicle emissions related to mining operations.
Now this is the first time I have used the exclamation marks so frequently – almost after every line. Well it had to be done. Yea, you know it expresses the feelings ! So once more… All hail mighty BelAZ 75710 !!!
