Maker Faire Bay Area 2023
Anderson's Famous Water Computer
Home: California, United States
Buckets of water, lots of tubes, ping pong balls and flaps moving up and down, what can go wrong? This is an interactive outdoor exhibit that engages all ages: younger kids pour water buckets up to recharge the 'battery', older kids plug and unplug the logic gates on the demo table, and those up to the challenge can learn how NMOS digital logic functions in this faithful water-electrical transistor analogy (water height == voltage) 2019 Maker Faire: https://mfairedev.wpengine.com/maker/entry/69344/ 'How do computers add numbers? We will show you how, using a mechanical computer that uses only water as the power source. Follow the digital logic operations gate by gate as your input ripples through the tubes to compute the answer.' We won I think 4 Editor Choice Awards and drew a big crowd!
https://hackaday.com/2018/12/03/andersons-water-computer-spills-the-analog-secrets-of-digital-logic/
Additional Project Photos
Maker
Glen Anderson
Glen worked as a chip designer for years in Silicon Valley and loves inspiring the next generation of computer enthusiasts.
What Inspired You to Make This?
As a chip designer I've looked for years for a way to explain to my kids how computers work at the lowest level of transistors and logic gates. I think it's really neat that the way the water, flaps, and ping pong balls operate is very similar to the real electricity and transistors in your IPhone!
