Barack Obama may privately wish the Republican Pledge to The United States were the target of the next Mythbusters investigation. Instead, Obama has challenged the Mythbusters to revisit the Archimedes death ray, a legend the Discovery Channel show busted in 2006. {Obama’s “Mythbusters” appearance will air Dec. 8 as part of the president’s STEM education campaign to inspire young individuals to embrace science and math|Airing Dec. 8, Obama’s Mythbusters gig ties in with his STEM schooling campaign to engender interest in math and science among the nation’s youth|President Obama and the Mythbusters are teaming up to promote the president’s STEM schooling campaign, a science and math initiative reaching out to young Americans|The Mythbusters are hosting Obama to give him a platform for the STEM schooling campaign encouraging young people to study math and science|Obama is enlisting the Mythbusters to help him promote his STEM educat! ion campaign, an effort to show America’s youth that math and science can be cool. Source of article – See ‘Mythbusters’ to look at President Obama appearance
An episode of “Mythbusters” is going to consist of Obama on it. This was announced Monday at the White House science fair. The White House Science Fair is a week of promotions for science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education, and also the USA Science and Engineering Festival on the National Mall is the grand finale. The NY Times accounts that in Obama’s “Mythbusters” appearance, the president will direct Mythbusters Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman to test the feasibility of the Archimedes death ray, a legend describing how Greek scientist Archimedes set an invading Roman fleet ablaze using mirrors to focus sunlight. “Mythbusters” tested the Archimedes death ray in 2006. The myth had been considered “busted” by Savage and Hyneman.
What is the Archimedes death ray?
Archimedes had been responsible for discovering principles of hydrostatics, like why a steel ship floats, and also discovered pi. According to Wikipedia, Archimedes allegedly designed a “burning mirror” to incinerate ships as the Roman fleet invaded Syracuse in 214 BC. But the earliest accounts of the battle only mention Archimedes’ genius combined with the Syracusan ability to “hurl fire.”. The Archimedes death ray was started in a Byzantine historian about 800 years later. M.I.T. students tested the death ray in 2005, according to How Stuff Works. They used 127 one-foot square mirrors arranged like a parabola in order to set fire to a 10-foot long, one-inch thick wooden model of a Roman ship.
Mythbusters debunk the death ray
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. The morning sunlight would have had to be what Archimedes used. After all that planning and construction, the sun needed to be out. The death ray would have to be working pretty fast. This would make it so it could hit the moving Roman ships. Plus sails, due to their light color, would have been very difficult to ignite.
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
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