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Deathray (Farnsworth unavailable for comments)

Archimedes Death Ray: Idea Feasibility Testing.

Ancient Greek and Roman historians recorded that during the siege of Syracuse in 212 BC, Archimedes (a notably smart person) constructed a burning glass to set the Roman warships, anchored within bow and arrow range, afire. The story has been much debated and oft dismissed as myth.

TV's MythBusters were not able to replicate the feat and “busted” the myth.

"Thursday, October 6, 2005
Archimedes's Death Ray realized

I just spoke with MIT professor David Wallace and grad student Barry Kudrowitz who are both involved in MIT's Product Engineering Processes course, a creative deisgn and engineering class. Last week, the class demonstrated that Archimedes's Death Ray, as previously "busted" on TV's Mythbusters (episode 16), could have been real. Legend has it that during the siege of Syracuse in 212 BC, Archimedes made a burning glass to burn up the enemy Roman warships. To see if it was possible, the MIT crew built a 10+ foot long model ship out of wood and positioned 129 1-foot square mirrors nearby. The results:

In an instant there is a large, open flame. The volatiles liberated from the wood ignite at roughly 1100 F.

Open, sustaining flame occurred less than 10 minutes after the sun was in a clear patch of sky!"

From: Mythbusters debunked

Ain't science great.

Isn't that greek fire? Very similer to napalm.

Nooo...it's MIT...that makes it a "Geek fire"

*ducks and runs*

Welcome on forum, and welcome in these parts, Uilleand. I hope you'll enjoy your stay. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wave.gif" alt="" />