Lego mindstorms, oldschool

lego mind storms combines legos with computer controlled motors.....
well here it is oldschool.... kindof.

http://tinyurl.com/a5gy7

LEGO Difference Engine

by Andrew Carol

Building A Calculating Machine Using LEGO


Carol's LEGO Difference Engine 2. (click for larger image)
History
Before the day of computers and pocket calculators all mathematics
was done by hand. Great effort was expended to compose trigonometric
and logarithmic tables for navigation, scientific investigation, and
engineering purposes.

In the mid-19th century, people began to design machines to automate
this error prone process. Many machines of various designs were
eventually built. The most famous of these machines is the Babbage
Difference Engine.

Because of engineering issues as well as political and personal
conflict the Babbage Difference engines construction had to wait
until 1991 when the Science Museum in London decided to build the
Babbage Difference Engine No.2 for an exhibit on the history of
computers.

Babbage's design could evaluate 7th order polynomials to 31 digits of
accuracy. I set out to build a working Difference Engine using LEGO
parts which could compute 2nd or 3rd order polynomials to 3 or 4 digits.

There is a lot more coming to this page over the next few weeks. More
details on how it works, and more pictures. Including pictures of the
engine broken into its basic adder units as well as close ups of the
important mechanisms.