A 12-year-old boy builds a replica of Archimedes’ death ray – and it works

An eighth-grader in Ontario, Canada, has helped settle a long-standing historical debate by proving that the so-called “death ray” designed by ancient Greek polymath Archimedes can actually work. The weapon, which allegedly harnessed sunlight to incinerate enemy ships, was reportedly deployed against the Roman navy with deadly results, but researchers are wondering whether this ancient device was really It is still unclear whether it existed or not.

To resolve the controversy, 12-year-old Brenden Senner created a scaled-down version of it, ultimately concluding that the concept worked and could probably be used in combat.

The original death ray is said to have been used against invading Romans during the Siege of Syracuse, which lasted from 213 to 212 BC. As warships march into a Hellenistic city in Sicily, the local garrison turns to Archimedes’ invention to keep the enemy at bay.

Among the amazing machines rumored to have been used is the famous Claw of Archimedes, which is said to have lifted Roman ships out of the water before dropping them from a great height. According to sources from the Greek historian Lucian, Archimedes also installed mirrors along the bay of Syracuse to concentrate the sun’s rays on enemy ships and set them ablaze.

Although some scholars, including the famous French philosopher René Descartes, dismissed the entire idea as fiction, others attempted to recreate the weapon with some success. In 2005, for example, a team at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) discovered that an Archimedean design could ignite a ship in just 11 minutes.

With no enemies to vaporize, Zenner settled on a tabletop version of the ancient death ray, using a series of concave mirrors and an LED desk lamp. He said that if he used a reflector to focus a 50 watt heat source onto the cardboard, the target’s temperature could rise by 2°C (3.6°F) with each additional mirror. (up to 3 mirrors total). .

Adding a fourth mirror significantly increased the temperature by 8°C (14.4°F).

After repeating the experiment using a 100 watt lamp, it was found that the temperature change for each mirror was 4 degrees Celsius. [7.2°F] Up to 3 mirrors and additional 10°C [18°F] In the fourth mirror. ”

“Based on my experimental results, I agree with the MIT group and believe that combustion is possible given a sufficiently powerful heat source and multiple larger mirrors all focused at perfect angles. ” wrote the young study authors.

In the end, he concluded that “while historical accounts of the use of death rays in ancient Syracuse are plausible, no archaeological evidence for Archimedes’ death rays other than that recorded in the books of ancient philosophers has been found. “No,” he concludes.

For his efforts, Mr. Senner received the Matthews Hall Annual Science Fair Gold Medal, the Physical Sciences Thames Valley Science and Engineering Fair Gold Medal, and the London Public Library Award for Inspiring Children’s Interest in Science and Technology.