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Mon 24 Oct, 2005 08:23 am
Doubt cast on Archimedes' killer mirrors:
· Greek 'harnessed sun's rays to burn Roman fleet'
· US scientists manage small blaze that fizzles out
Quote:Scientists re-create Archimedes' death ray
October 24, 2005
BY RON HARRIS
SAN FRANCISCO -- It wasn't exactly the ancient siege of Syracuse, but rather a quest for scientific validation.
According to sparse historical writings, the Greek mathematician Archimedes torched a fleet of invading Roman ships by reflecting the sun's powerful rays with a mirrored device made of glass or bronze.
More than 2,000 years later, researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of Arizona set out to re-create Archimedes' fabled death ray Saturday in an experiment sponsored by the Discovery Channel program ''MythBusters.''
Their attempts to set fire to an 80-year-old fishing boat using their own versions of the device, however, failed to either prove or dispel the myth of the solar death ray.
The MIT team's first attempt with their contraption made of 300 square feet of bronze and glass failed to ignite a fire from 150 feet away. It produced smoldering on the boat's wooden surface but no open flame. A second attempt from about 75 feet away lit only a small fire that burned itself out.
Mike Bushroe of the University of Arizona's Lunar and Planetary Laboratory tried a mirrored system shaped like flower petals, but it failed to produce either smoke or flames.
Peter Rees, executive producer of ''MythBusters,'' said the experiment showed Archimedes' death ray was most likely a myth.
''We're not saying it can't be done,'' Rees said. ''We're just saying it's extremely impractical as a weapon of war.''
A nuke of 2,000 years ago
The experiment showed it may be technically possible, but didn't answer whether Archimedes used it to destroy enemy ships, MIT professor David Wallace said.
''Who can say whether Archimedes did it or not?'' he said. ''He's one of the great mathematical minds in history. I wouldn't want to underestimate his intelligence or ability.''
Historical text describes Archimedes defeating a Roman fleet using the ray.
In ''Epitome ton Istorion,'' John Zonaras wrote: ''At last in an incredible manner he burned up the whole Roman fleet. For by tilting a kind of mirror toward the sun he concentrated the sun's beam upon it; and owing to the thickness and smoothness of the mirror he ignited the air from this beam and kindled a great flame, the whole of which he directed upon the ships that lay at anchor in the path of the fire, until he consumed them all.''
''If this weapon had worked, it would have been the equivalent of a nuclear weapon in the ancient world,'' Rees said.
AP
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Been watching the progress of that one! Interesting...
What a funny and interesting little project!
In ''Epitome ton Istorion,'' John Zonaras wrote: ''At last in an incredible manner he burned up the whole Roman fleet. For by tilting a kind of mirror toward the sun he concentrated the sun's beam upon it; and owing to the thickness and smoothness of the mirror he ignited the air from this beam and kindled a great flame, the whole of which he directed upon the ships that lay at anchor in the path of the fire, until he consumed them all.''
That quote intrigues me. Notice that it doesn't say that Archimedes played the sun's rays directly onto the ships. "He ignited the air from this beam and kindlesd a great flame which he directed upon the ships." Now, I have no idea how you would ignite the air, unless it had been pre-saturated with some combustible substance. But I suspect that the MIT experiment is meaningless because they couldn't figure out just what it was that Archimedes did, either. In sum, they did not duplicate the experiment; they created a new one which didn't work.
Maybe it meant that fire was kindled out of thin air - seemingly it came from nowhere...?
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