Teams fail to recreate Archimedes' fabled death ray

[IGBT]

Text

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 recreate 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.

 

[GagHalfrunt]

Mythbusters tried it a while ago, they failed too. Gosh, impossible to invent a death ray using only mirrors, what a shock.

 

[Nerva]

Originally posted by: GagHalfrunt
Mythbusters tried it a while ago, they failed too. Gosh, impossible to invent a death ray using only mirrors, what a shock.

i find your insolence disturbing. if i were vader, i would be raising my dark gloved hand by now. and you well...enjoy the choke

 

[mobobuff]

Perhaps proving that any old writings are likely to be embellishments and fallacy?

 

[Gunslinger08]

Originally posted by: mobobuff
Perhaps proving that any old writings are likely to be embellishments and fallacy?

Flame, Flame.

 

[sciencewhiz]

USA Today is a lot less optimistic then the MIT students. http://web.mit.edu/2.009/www/lectures/10_ArchimedesResult.html

 

[IGBT]

Originally posted by: joshsquall

Originally posted by: mobobuff
Perhaps proving that any old writings are likely to be embellishments and fallacy?

Flame, Flame.

..oh no. You mean the biblical "Burning Bush" story may be a fallacy?? :Q

 

[Connoisseur]

At the very least some sort of focusing magnifying glass is needed. Like setting an ant on fire (not that I've ever done it). Even then, the light needs to be precisely focused on each ship or else the necessary heat won't be generated. Cool idea though. It'd be useless on a cloudy day

 

[CrackRabbit]

What if they were aiming for the wrong part of the ship?
If I were trying to catch a ship on fire by that method the hull would be the last thing I would aim for.
You would aim for the thing that would ignite the easiest, the sails.

 

[her209]

Is it possible to store the heat in some medium and then unleashing it all at once?

 

[Cooler]

Yes but will a ship stay that still for that long?

 

[Baked]

They only proved one thing. Modern people are stupid.

 

[Whisper]

Originally posted by: CrackRabbit
What if they were aiming for the wrong part of the ship?
If I were trying to catch a ship on fire by that method the hull would be the last thing I would aim for.
You would aim for the thing that would ignite the easiest, the sails.

If the ships were anchored, then it's possible the sails had all already been taken down. Besides, I'd imagine that burning the hull would be more immediately catastrophic than the sails.

Edit: By the way, for the people who didn't read the second article, those MIT students/professors got it to work. It took 10 minutes to ignite the hull under an unclouded sun.

 

[spidey07]

Originally posted by: sciencewhiz
USA Today is a lot less optimistic then the MIT students. http://web.mit.edu/2.009/www/lectures/10_ArchimedesResult.html

Yep, heard about this.

mythbusters got busted. Proved you CAN have a death ray.

 

[FeuerFrei]

Given a required focal length you would have to maintain a certain distance from what you were trying to burn. This would be difficult if you were trying to aim from one moving vessel to another.

Also ships aren't exactly steady platforms so there would have to be constant adjustments to aim.

I say land mount for the "ray" would be preferable although hard to get a ship to come within effective range.

 

[her209]

Originally posted by: Whisper
Edit: By the way, for the people who didn't read the second article, those MIT students/professors got it to work. It took 10 minutes to ignite the hull under an unclouded sun.

Look at how close they have to be. In that 10 minutes it takes to light the ship ablaze, it would have landed already.

 

[GeneValgene]

Originally posted by: spidey07

Originally posted by: sciencewhiz
USA Today is a lot less optimistic then the MIT students. http://web.mit.edu/2.009/www/lectures/10_ArchimedesResult.html

Yep, heard about this.

mythbusters got busted. Proved you CAN have a death ray.

wow...MIT students pwn mythbusters

 

[her209]

Originally posted by: GeneValgene
wow...MIT students pwn mythbusters

No they didn't. All they proved was that you can light something that is stationary on fire with enough mirrors.

 

[spidey07]

Originally posted by: her209

Originally posted by: GeneValgene
wow...MIT students pwn mythbusters

No they didn't. All they proved was that you can light something that is stationary on fire with enough mirrors.

Mythbusters acknowledged they got busted. It was in the news Friday.

 

[Whisper]

Originally posted by: her209

Originally posted by: Whisper
Edit: By the way, for the people who didn't read the second article, those MIT students/professors got it to work. It took 10 minutes to ignite the hull under an unclouded sun.

Look at how close they have to be. In that 10 minutes it takes to light the ship ablaze, it would have landed already.

I believe the ships were already anchored, meaning they probably weren't going to be moving anytime soon.

 

[OulOat]

Originally posted by: Whisper

Originally posted by: her209

Originally posted by: Whisper
Edit: By the way, for the people who didn't read the second article, those MIT students/professors got it to work. It took 10 minutes to ignite the hull under an unclouded sun.

Look at how close they have to be. In that 10 minutes it takes to light the ship ablaze, it would have landed already.

I believe the ships were already anchored, meaning they probably weren't going to be moving anytime soon.

Still, the ships are still rocking up and down from the waves. It'll be extremely hard for all the soldiers to aim at one moving spot.

 

[cavemanmoron]

Originally posted by: sciencewhiz
USA Today is a lot less optimistic then the MIT students. http://web.mit.edu/2.009/www/lectures/10_ArchimedesResult.html

 

[mercanucaribe]

Originally posted by: OulOat

Originally posted by: Whisper

Originally posted by: her209

Originally posted by: Whisper
Edit: By the way, for the people who didn't read the second article, those MIT students/professors got it to work. It took 10 minutes to ignite the hull under an unclouded sun.

Look at how close they have to be. In that 10 minutes it takes to light the ship ablaze, it would have landed already.

I believe the ships were already anchored, meaning they probably weren't going to be moving anytime soon.

Still, the ships are still rocking up and down from the waves. It'll be extremely hard for all the soldiers to aim at one moving spot.

All the soldiers? How many does it take to aim a concave mirror? You think they (supposedly) had a bunch of little mirrors propped up with sticks?

 

[Whisper]

Originally posted by: mercanucaribe

Originally posted by: OulOat

Originally posted by: Whisper

Originally posted by: her209

Originally posted by: Whisper
Edit: By the way, for the people who didn't read the second article, those MIT students/professors got it to work. It took 10 minutes to ignite the hull under an unclouded sun.

Look at how close they have to be. In that 10 minutes it takes to light the ship ablaze, it would have landed already.

I believe the ships were already anchored, meaning they probably weren't going to be moving anytime soon.

Still, the ships are still rocking up and down from the waves. It'll be extremely hard for all the soldiers to aim at one moving spot.

All the soldiers? How many does it take to aim a concave mirror? You think they (supposedly) had a bunch of little mirrors propped up with sticks?

I think it would've been more realistic for the Greeks to have a bunch of little mirros as opposed to one large concave mirror. But who knows. Maybe that had a mix of both.