[Bloody Sam Roberts]

I wonder...since it was found on the remains of a Roman shipwreck...was this device merely plunder?
An interesting thing-a-mabob that the Romans simply grabbed along with other loot from the Greeks?

[donmeaker]

In any case, it was not a computer or a calculator (multi=purpose machines). Rather it was a calendar or a clock. A mechanism.

The complexities of elliptic orbits are not represented. Rather, it just matched the simple projection of that movement, as visible from the earth. That just took making a curve in the slot in which the pin traveled.

Whether Newton's head hurt or didn't while contemplating elliptic orbits is irrelevant.