{"id":16694,"date":"2024-03-09T00:46:14","date_gmt":"2024-03-09T00:46:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/2024\/03\/09\/a-middle-schoolers-science-project-suggests-archimedes-death-ray-might-have-really-worked\/"},"modified":"2024-03-09T00:46:14","modified_gmt":"2024-03-09T00:46:14","slug":"a-middle-schoolers-science-project-suggests-archimedes-death-ray-might-have-really-worked","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/2024\/03\/09\/a-middle-schoolers-science-project-suggests-archimedes-death-ray-might-have-really-worked\/","title":{"rendered":"A middle schooler\u2019s science project suggests Archimedes\u2019 death ray might have really worked"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Often called the father of mathematics, Archimedes was one of the most famous inventors in ancient Greece, with some of his ideas and principles still in use today. <\/p>\n

But one fabled device has left scientists speculating on its existence for hundreds of years \u2014 the death ray. Now, a middle schooler may have some answers.<\/strong> <\/p>\n

Brenden Sener, 13, of London, Ontario, has won two gold medals and a London Public Library award for his minuscule version of the contraption \u2014 a supposed war weapon made up of a large array of mirrors designed to focus and aim sunlight on a target, such as a ship, and cause combustion \u2014 according to a paper published in the January issue of the Canadian Science Fair Journal. <\/p>\n

\n
<\/div>\n

Related article<\/span> Researchers reveal first full passages decoded from famously inscrutable Herculaneum scrolls<\/span> <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The Greek polymath has fascinated Sener since he learned of the inventor during a family vacation to Greece. For his 2022 science project, Sener recreated the Archimedes screw, a device for raising and moving water. But he didn\u2019t stop there. <\/p>\n

Sener found the death ray to be one of the more intriguing devices \u2014 sometimes referred to as the heat ray. Historical writings suggested that Archimedes used \u201cburning mirrors\u201d to start anchored ships on fire during the siege of Syracuse from 214 to 212 BC. <\/p>\n

\u201cArchimedes was so ahead of his time with his inventions. And it really did revolutionize technology at that time, because Archimedes was thinking about stuff that no one actually had before,\u201d Sener said. \u201c(The death ray) is such a neat idea that no one at that time would have thought of.\u201d <\/p>\n

There is no archaeological evidence that the contraption existed, as Sener noted in his paper, but many have tried to recreate the mechanism to see if the ancient invention could be feasible. <\/p>\n

Miniature death ray<\/h3>\n

In Sener\u2019s attempt at the ray, he set up a heating lamp facing four small concave mirrors, each tilted to direct light at a piece of cardboard with an X marked at the focal point. In this project he designed for the 2023 Matthews Hall Annual Science Fair, Sener hypothesized that as the mirrors focused light energy onto the cardboard, the temperature of the target would increase with each mirror added. <\/p>\n

In his experiment, Sener conducted three trials with two different light bulb wattages, 50 watts and 100 watts. Each additional mirror increased the temperature notably, he found. <\/p>\n

\u201cI wasn\u2019t exactly sure how the results would come out due to there being lots of different results with this topic, but I did expect that there would be increases in heat \u2014 but not as drastic as I found when I actually did my experiment,\u201d Sener said. <\/p>\n

The temperature of the cardboard during with just the heating lamp and the 100-watt light bulb and no mirrors was about 81 degrees Fahrenheit (27.2 degrees Celsius). After waiting for the cardboard to cool, Sener added one mirror and retested. The focal point\u2019s temperature increased to almost 95 F (34.9 C), he found. <\/p>\n

The greatest increase occurred with the addition of the fourth mirror. The temperature with three mirrors aimed at the target was almost 110 F (43.4 C), but the addition of a fourth mirror increased the temperature by about 18 F (10 C) to 128 F (53.5 C). <\/p>\n

Writing in the paper, Sener said he found these results to be \u201cquite remarkable as it suggests that light is going in all directions and that the shape of the concave mirror focuses the light waves onto a single point.\u201d <\/p>\n

Praising Sener for insights into Archimedes\u2019 death ray, Cliff Ho, a senior scientist at Sandia National Laboratories, said the project is \u201can excellent evaluation of the fundamental processes.\u201d The facility is an engineering and science laboratory with the US Department of Energy\u2019s National Nuclear Security Administration in Albuquerque, New Mexico. <\/p>\n

While the experiment doesn\u2019t offer \u201canything significantly new to the scientific literature \u2026 his findings were a nice confirmation of the first law of thermodynamics,\u201d which states energy or heat can be transferred, Ho said. The scientist had proposed a conference in 2014 on the death ray, concluding the idea was possible but would have been difficult for Archimedes to pull off. <\/p>\n

Sener was not attempting to light anything on fire, as \u201ca heating lamp does not generate anywhere near enough heat as the sun would,\u201d he said. But he believes that with the use of the sun\u2019s rays and a larger mirror, \u201cthe temperature would increase even more drastically and at a faster rate\u201d and \u201cwould easily cause combustion.\u201d <\/p>\n

More theories on the death ray<\/h3>\n

Every two years, the Olympic torch is set ablaze using a curved parabolic mirror that concentrates sunlight into one point. Once the torch is put in that focal point, the sun\u2019s rays ignite the torch. It is not widely believed that Archimedes used a single parabolic mirror, as it cannot be aimed the same way a flat mirror can. <\/p>\n

Archimedes\u2019 death ray is more commonly speculated to have been an array of several mirrors or polished shields. However, this theory is often discredited due to the idea that ships would be moving during battle. In order for the vessels to ignite from heat generated by the mirrors, they would have needed to be stationary and anchored near shore, said Thomas Chondros, a retired associate professor with the department of mechanical engineering and aeronautics at Greece\u2019s University of Patras. Chondros has studied Archimedes and his inventions. <\/p>\n

The Discovery Channel series \u201cMythBusters\u201d featured episodes in 2004, 2006 and 2010 testing out scenarios for the purported death ray but ultimately declared the legend to be a myth when each test failed to light a wooden boat on fire. In 2005, a class of students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, inspired by the show\u2019s first episode, was able to ignite a wooden boat once with a similar technique to Sener\u2019s on a larger scale, but failed on a second attempt. <\/p>\n

Sener said he believes that combining MIT\u2019s findings with his own, the data could suggest the death ray was plausible, and Archimedes likely could have used the sun\u2019s rays with large mirrors to cause combustion. But the technology may not work in cold temperatures or cloudy weather, and the sea\u2019s impact on the ships\u2019 motion affects the practicality of this device, he added in his paper. <\/p>\n

\n
<\/div>\n

Related article<\/span> Discovery of a rare ceramic head reveals a previously unknown Roman settlement<\/span> <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Despite the limitations for the practicality of the death ray, Chondros found Sener\u2019s project to be \u201cinteresting and well documented\u201d and the teen\u2019s experimental setup could \u201cform the base of a discussion for young students, even University students,\u201d he said in an email. <\/p>\n

Sener\u2019s mom, Melanie, was not surprised by her son\u2019s choice in science project. \u201cHe has always been fascinated with history, with science, with nature. \u2026 He\u2019s always had a thirst for any form of education and knowledge,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

Sener could see himself one day being a scientist, whether it be in engineering, bioengineering or medicine, he said. <\/p>\n\n

This post appeared first on cnn.com<\/div>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Often called the father of mathematics, Archimedes was one of the most famous inventors in ancient Greece, with some of his ideas and principles still in use today. But one fabled device has left scientists speculating on its existence for hundreds of years \u2014 the death ray. Now, a middle schooler may have some answers. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":16695,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-16694","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16694","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16694"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16694\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16695"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16694"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16694"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16694"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}