THE VIDEO SHELF · mechanical fourier analysis
(1/4) Intro/History: Introducing a 100-year-old mechanical computer
The first of four short videos from Bill Hammack (engineerguy) introducing and giving the history of a 100-year-old mechanical computer, Michelson's harmonic analyzer. The series goes on to explain Fourier synthesis, analysis and operation of the machine.
Why HN readers recommended it
Commenters recommend the series whenever Fourier analysis or analog computing comes up, praising Hammack's clear explanations and the short episodes.
This is a summary from the source dataset, not an endorsement by Hacker News or the video creator.
Video & recommendation details
- Creator / channel
- engineerguy
- Topic
- mechanical fourier analysis
- Format
- explainer
- Level
- general
- HN recommenders in dataset
- 6
- HN mentions in dataset
- 8
- Recommendation years in dataset
- 2015–2023
These counts and years describe the included Hacker News records; they are not YouTube views or the video’s publication date.
From the original HN conversations
Excerpts from the recorded comments. Follow each source for the full comment and surrounding discussion.
If you haven't watched all of Bill's videos, you should put them on your list right right now. His early stuff was a great mixture of goofy humor and fascinating explanations of the engineering behind various everyday objects. His more recent stuff has (unfortunately, in …
JshWright on Hacker News · 2018-02
In The Engineering of the Drinking Bird Toy [video]There is a series of four fantastic videos about a successor to Thompson's tidal analyzer - the Michaelson's Harmonic Analyzer; here is the first video: [VIDEO]
amatic on Hacker News · 2021-12
In Analog computers were the most powerful computers for thousands of years [video]It's not in use today but if you haven't already seen it, I bet you would enjoy Bill Hammack's series explaining how a 100 year old mechanical harmonic analyzer works. [VIDEO]
Quequau on Hacker News · 2018-08
In Tide-Predicting Machine No. 2
Summaries, classifications and recommendation records are from the HackerTube source dataset. Read about this library and its limitations.