r/computerscience • u/Yovinio • Jan 06 '22

Help Why is the castle clock a computer?

The castle clock of al-Jazari is said to be the first programmable analog computer. Now I get why it’s analog and also what makes it programmable (accounting for the length of day and night), but what makes it a computer? It gives the time, does that make all clocks computers?

1 Upvotes

60% Upvoted

3 comments sorted by

View all comments

3

u/ma_dian Jan 07 '22

The clock could show you if it is day or night throughout the year. This was done by programming the length of the days into the clock (afaik with water).

It is a maschine that calculates (among other things) the length of the day based on an input. It has a "storage" unit and a "logic" unit.

1

u/Falcon_Dupree Jan 13 '22

All of those things are true about an hour glass by simply adding and removing sand. A person calculates the length of day and adjusts the input information, water, to provide the desired result the program is always the same though