President Obama tests Mythbusters to debunk the Archimedes death ray

The Mythbusters have accepted an assignment from Obama, however it won’t have anything to do with the Republican Pledge to America. The topic instead could be the viability of the Archimedes death ray, a tale the Discovery Channel show first investigated in 2006. Obama is enlisting the Mythbusters to help him promote his STEM schooling campaign, an effort to show America’s youth that science

and math could be cool.

President Obama might be seen on ‘Mythbusters’

An episode of “Mythbusters” is going to include Obama on it. This had been announced Monday at the White House science fair. Within the White House science fair, numerous things could be seen. Incorporated are promotions for science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education along with the USA Science and Engineering Festival that will be on the National Mall. According to the New York Times, the “Mythbusters” presence that President Obama can be making could be about the Archimedes death ray which involves a legend where a Greek scientist, or Archimedes, used mirrors to focus sunlight and set invading Romans on fire. This is what Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman could be doing. In 2006, the Archimedes death ray had already been tested by “Mythbusters”. Savage and Hyneman declared the myth “busted.”.

The Archimedes death ray

Pi had been a number discovered by Archimedes. He also explained why a steel ship floats with hydrostatics he discovered. Wikipedia explains that a “burning mirror” was created by Archimedes so that when the Roman fleet invaded Syracuse in 214 BC, he could incinerate the ships. But the earliest accounts of the battle only mention Archimedes’ genius combined with the Syracusan ability to “hurl fire.”. The Archimedes death ray had been started in a Byzantine historian about 800 years later. How Stuff Works accounts that in 2005, M.I.T. students set fire to a 10-foot long, one-inch thick wooden model of a Roman ship using 127 one-foot square flat mirrors arranged in a parabola.

Death ray considered a myth after Mythbusters

The Archimedes death ray created by the M.I.T. students intrigued “Mythbusters.” So in 2006, the show invited the students on to demonstrate. According to kwc.org, the students could only get smoke at 150 feet and flames at 75 feet. Archimedes was limited in his sunlight possibilities. The morning sunlight would have been used for this. The sun had to be out after preparing and construction. The death ray would need an instant effect since the Roman ships were moving. The sails were all a light color. That means igniting them would have been hard.

Articles cited

How Stuff Works

history.howstuffworks.com/ancient-greece/archimedes-death-ray2.htm

KWC

kwc.org/mythbusters/2006/01/episode_46_archimedes_death_ra.html

New York Times

thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/10/18/obama-to-appear-on-mythbusters-for-heat-ray-test/?partner=rss and emc=rss