this post was submitted on 23 Feb 2026
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Science Memes

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[–] Zwiebel@feddit.org 76 points 2 months ago (2 children)
[–] snooggums@piefed.world 46 points 2 months ago (1 children)

According to the documentary Futurama it is a tank with crab legs!

[–] erie09@lemmy.world 11 points 2 months ago

And ice cream is just a byproduct

[–] Rhaedas@fedia.io 26 points 2 months ago (5 children)

A tank pre-steam power. The force of steam was known about long before, but not utilized. Maybe because the metals weren't good enough yet to hold pressure? Imagine a steampunk Rome.

[–] mech@feddit.org 22 points 2 months ago

Yes, the metal wasn't good enough, and the manufacturing tolerances weren't small enough to hold pressure.

[–] hector@lemmy.today 17 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (2 children)

Hero (a dude) of Alexandria made some steam powered stuff around the dawn of the 1st millenia, and some roman dude put steam powered doors in his house, I think some temples had steam powered doors to.

The emporer, I think Augustus the first one, had it presented to him to develop it further and he decided he didn't want to take jobs from the plebs or whatever, had to keep the beggars busy with something. So they dropped it.

Hundreds of years prior, a couple of hundred maybe, Archimedes theorized a steam cannon.

[–] mech@feddit.org 18 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

The principle of steam power was known, but the ancient steam engines could only move stuff against little resistance once, while releasing all steam.
It wasn't possible to build a steam engine that could build up pressure and do actual work, until metallurgy and precision machining were developed.

[–] hector@lemmy.today 9 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I think the first major application for a steam engine that could do real work was way into the 18th century or something, with the steam pump, to access coal seams deeper in the ground by pumping water out. Not sure entirely though.

[–] waz@feddit.uk 4 points 2 months ago
[–] 5715@feddit.org 10 points 2 months ago (3 children)

Taqi ad-Din was like: What else could it spin than a spit:

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[–] Aussiemandeus@aussie.zone 59 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Wild, I watched my wife playing assassins creed last night while holding the baby, this machine was in the game

Never seen it before and now twice in a row.

Damn Baader-Meinhof

[–] Jumbie@lemmy.zip 16 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Maybe you should help her with the baby so she can game.

[–] Aussiemandeus@aussie.zone 34 points 2 months ago (4 children)

Nah if i hold the baby while she games it's to easy for her, she needs an extra difficulty level /s

I was holding the baby. Probably could have worded it better

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[–] ryannathans@aussie.zone 6 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Probably never see it again either

[–] BanMe@lemmy.world 11 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I've seen this thing at least 500 times in my life, not sure how folks haven't seen it as many times. Did you all not spend hours pouring over Da Vinci's drawings as a kid? As a teen? As a young adult? Yesterday?

[–] Aussiemandeus@aussie.zone 4 points 2 months ago (3 children)

Nah, but i did buy a cool book you might be interested in if you like that kind of thing.

The books all illustrated on different survival things.

I bought it and inscribed it for my son hoping he learns from it but never needs it.

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[–] TheTechnician27@lemmy.world 54 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (2 children)

Given a translator, can you even imagine Leonardo da Vinci and Hideo Kojima in a room together?

[–] skulblaka@sh.itjust.works 40 points 2 months ago (2 children)

A weapon to surpass Metal Gear...

[–] Thorry@feddit.org 4 points 2 months ago

Second floor basement?!?!!

[–] defaultusername@lemmy.dbzer0.com 22 points 2 months ago (2 children)

No, because Da Vinci died in 1519, whereas Kojima was born in 1963.

[–] TheTechnician27@lemmy.world 10 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

Yeah, hence "a translator". You didn't think I meant from Renaissance-era Italian to modern Japanese, did you? No one person could probably do that. I meant a translator from this plane to the next.

[–] HumanOnEarth@lemmy.ca 5 points 2 months ago (1 children)

My dude the other guy was being facetious......

[–] TheTechnician27@lemmy.world 4 points 2 months ago (1 children)

So was I. "Yes, and", as we say in improv. (I've never done improv.)

[–] Aussiemandeus@aussie.zone 4 points 2 months ago

Yes and me either

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[–] n4ch1sm0@piefed.social 33 points 2 months ago

Leonardo's was literally just running a copy of Besiege 24/7 in his brain, wasn't he?

[–] lightnsfw@reddthat.com 21 points 2 months ago

He would have loved battle bots.

[–] iamthetot@piefed.ca 17 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Was genuinely fun to drive and use on Assassin's Creed.

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[–] PieMePlenty@lemmy.world 15 points 2 months ago (7 children)

Yeah, he designed these things for Sforza because designing war machines pays money.

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[–] quediuspayu@lemmy.dbzer0.com 9 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

The machina magnifica!

[–] drunkpostdisaster@lemmy.world 7 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

Imagine paying for a weapon design only to end up with two incomplete designs and one being a stupid flying thing that will never work and a bunch of naked people pictures that are at least finished, but kind of useless because doctors continued to just poison people anyway

He is one of my favorite historical figures, but he must have been absolutely infuriating to deal with.

[–] Buddahriffic@lemmy.world 4 points 2 months ago

I bet he had ADD with all those hobbies he collected.

[–] TheTimeKnife@lemmy.world 7 points 2 months ago (1 children)

If only we could have gotten Da Vinci and the Hussites together in order to build a wooden mech covered in cannons.

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[–] how_we_burned@lemmy.zip 6 points 2 months ago

No don't do this. You're giving gaijin ideas.

It'll be the next tank on Warthunder, under the Italian tech tree.

[–] MonkderVierte@lemmy.zip 5 points 2 months ago

It's a panzer.

[–] Skullgrid@lemmy.world 5 points 2 months ago

"Sorry I couldn't work on your commission, I was busy trying to land a job with the Duke"

[–] wer2@lemmy.zip 4 points 2 months ago

I too have dozens of unfinished projects, so me and Leo are basically the same. /s

[–] Formfiller@lemmy.world 4 points 2 months ago

Dude definitely needed adderall

[–] panda_abyss@lemmy.ca 3 points 2 months ago

How are the hair spring driven robots more efficient than one big hairspring to drive this thing??

DaVinci needs to take a class on physics.

[–] NotASharkInAManSuit@lemmy.world 3 points 2 months ago

Da Vinci definitely would have played Orkz.

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