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Could Heron's engine have been scalable and made something other than a toy? What about other technologies that appeared in the Middle Ages (or maybe in China at the time)?
The thing that prompted this was this Facebook post:
Do you know why the Romans didn't invent electronics? They messed up the equations:
1. The voltage V was always 5.
2. The current I was always 1. Squaring the current produced 2, not 1.
3. The inductance L was always 50.
4. The capacitance C was always 100.
5. The resistance R (V/I) was always 5.
6. There was a tendency for the variable x to be interpreted as 10.
7. Multiplying current by voltage could produce either 4 or 6 depending on whether the scribe was a righty or a lefty.