Student Recreates the Archimedes Death Ray

[jedishrfu]

TL;DR Summary

Student Recreates the Archimedes Death Ray using mirrors and testing the temperature rise in the target

Student Recreates the Archimedes Death Ray

https://www.giantfreakinrobot.com/sci/ancient-death-ray-recreated.html

 

[berkeman]

TL;DR Summary: Student Recreates the Archimedes Death Ray using mirrors and testing the temperature rise in the target

Student Recreates the Archimedes Death Ray

https://www.giantfreakinrobot.com/sci/ancient-death-ray-recreated.html

Um, that looks an awful lot like a B-25 bomber aircraft flying above those primitive warships from 213BC...

 

[Swamp Thing]

An architect beat the student to this achievement by several years.

 

[jedishrfu]

There was one Disney building even earlier in California in 2003 where a building's curved glass raised the temperature of nearby buildings by many degrees:



Mythbusters also had an episode on it that said it couldn't have worked well due to the length of time needed for ignition and the increased moisture content of boat wood.

Season 4 episode 7: revisiting the Archimedes Death Ray


Season 3 episode 30:
https://iview.abc.net.au/video/ZW3765A030S00

https://web.mit.edu/2.009_gallery/www/2005_other/archimedes/10_Mythbusters.html

More on the London Walkie-Talkie building:

https://www.nbcnews.com/sciencemain/london-skyscraper-can-melt-cars-set-buildings-fire-8c11069092

 

[glappkaeft]

I think the first successful attempt I heard of to recrate this was in an old Usenet post by Henry Spencer but it had no reference. I think he could have been referring to an experiment by Ioannis Sakkas in 1973. When the Mythbusters failed MIT professor David Wallace and some students did a test that suggested it was at least somewhat feasible.

Um, that looks an awful lot like a B-25 bomber aircraft flying above those primitive warships from 213BC...

View attachment 340388

Nah, that is a Heinkel-111.

Spoiler for a 2023 movie.

Spoiler

The image is from the latest Indiana Jones movie.