How did Zhang Heng's seismoscope indicate the direction of an earthquake?
Answer
By dropping a ball from a dragon into a toad's mouth
The internal mechanism of the seismoscope was calibrated to respond to seismic activity. When an earthquake caused the ground to shake, an internal component would trip a lever, releasing a bronze ball from the mouth of one of the eight dragon heads. Because each dragon corresponded to a specific geographic direction, the location where the ball fell into the waiting mouth of a bronze toad provided an immediate and clear indication of where the seismic energy originated.
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