Ursus Posted February 12, 2006 Report Share Posted February 12, 2006 Americans who get The Discovery Channel may be aware of a program called "mythbusters." These two geeks and their crew test urban myths using ingenious methods. Most of the urban myths turn out to be false, of course. Last night they tested the old Legend that Archimedes fashioned some type of big mirror to focus the sun's rays and burn incoming Roman ships. Yes, the infamous Archimedes death ray! A challenge was issued to various engineering teams (including a team from MIT) to see if they could fashion some device that could burn a mockup of a Roman vessel at a 150 feet. Using modern mirrors, the MIT team was able to do it. However, when confining themselves to Iron Age bronze mirrors, it could not be done under simulated circumstances. For one thing, the solar death ray simply didn't work every time there was cloud cover. For another thing, to start a fire the solar rays would have to be focused on a particular part of a ship for a considerable length of time, and if the Roman ships were moving (which they would have been) this would have been near impossible. Anyway, very interesting how they set this up and disspelled this myth. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FLavius Valerius Constantinus Posted February 12, 2006 Report Share Posted February 12, 2006 Lol, I remember reporting about this a long time ago. You should have seen how they wasted their time with the 'lift a kid' with balloons. 3000 ballons later and the kid was only on her toes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Germanicus Posted February 13, 2006 Report Share Posted February 13, 2006 I love the show, and know a few guys who would fit right in with those "geeks"! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DecimusCaesar Posted February 16, 2006 Report Share Posted February 16, 2006 I saw a similar programme on the BBC last year; in which a female archaeologist tried to rebuild the Crane that the defenders of Syracuse used to topple Roman battleships. They did manage to pick it up a little but with a lot of diffuculty, plus the battleship was completely stationary. I doubt any navy commander would be stupid enough to sail up to enemy battlements and sit there patiently as the enemy try to topple the ship. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Virgil61 Posted February 16, 2006 Report Share Posted February 16, 2006 I saw a similar programme on the BBC last year; in which a female archaeologist tried to rebuild the Crane that the defenders of Syracuse used to topple Roman battleships. They did manage to pick it up a little but with a lot of diffuculty, plus the battleship was completely stationary. I doubt any navy commander would be stupid enough to sail up to enemy battlements and sit there patiently as the enemy try to topple the ship. The only thing I can think of is that they probably may have had to anchor the ship in place or somehow grapple it to the sides of the defensive works to keep it stationary and stable while soldiers tried to assault the walls. That might give the defenders time to 'hook' the ship, one could assume the crew wasn't expecting it and didn't react in time until the ship was hooked. Just a guess. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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