Heat Ray (also called Death Ray)
The device, sometimes called the "Archimedes heat ray" or even “the death ray” was used to focus sunlight/sun rays onto approaching ships, causing them to catch fire. There was a debate of the credibility of the heat ray in the renaissance age and onward. It was suggested that Archimedes used copper or bronze shields as mirrors to reflect sunlight onto the boat.There was a test of the credibility of the heat ray by a Greek scientist named Ioannis Sakkas in 1973. He focused 70 mirrors coated with a copper coating on a fake plywood roman warship from around 49 m away. The fake boat burned up within seconds.
It was determined later on that there may have been tar on the plywood that could have helped with the combustion. Tar was a usual substance on ships in Archimedes' era.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology & Mythbusters
In 2005, students from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, MIT, did an experiment similar to the Greek scientist, using square mirrors to focus rays from the sun on a fake wooden ship at a range of around 30 m away from where they were. There were some parts of the ship that were set aflame but this only happened when the sun came out. They also had to wait about ten minutes for a big fire. From this experiment, people really started to question its credibility. The group of students from MIT repeated this same experiment on the show MythBusters. They used a wooden fishing boat as the target for the experiment. The same effects happen to the boat as the previous time they experimented. In order for them to catch the boat on fire, the wood of the boat would have needed to reach its autoignition temperature (the lowest temperature at which an object will burst into flames), which for the boat was around 300° Celsius.
When MythBusters broadcasted the results of the experiment, they claimed that the experiment was a bust or "busted" because of the length of time that was needed for combustion, the ideal weather conditions required for combustion and there was other weapons that could have easily replicated the same effect as Archimedes' heat ray. For example, flaming arrows are one of the many weapons that could have had the same effect.
A few years later, MythBusters did the heat ray experiment again in a special edition of the show, featuring Barack Obama’s President's Challenge. There were several experiments that were accomplished, including an experiment with 500 children aiming mirrors at another fake Roman sailing ship, but this time at an even larger distance than before, 120 m away. This time, they couldn't even get the sail (which has a lower autoignition temperature than the boat itself) to catch on fire , and thus the MythBusters claimed again that the experiment was a bust or "busted". For the conclusion of this show, the MythBusters said that it would have been more likely that the heat ray had blinded the crew with a dazzling light, and because of the light the crew of the ship would have been distracted.
It was determined later on that there may have been tar on the plywood that could have helped with the combustion. Tar was a usual substance on ships in Archimedes' era.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology & Mythbusters
In 2005, students from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, MIT, did an experiment similar to the Greek scientist, using square mirrors to focus rays from the sun on a fake wooden ship at a range of around 30 m away from where they were. There were some parts of the ship that were set aflame but this only happened when the sun came out. They also had to wait about ten minutes for a big fire. From this experiment, people really started to question its credibility. The group of students from MIT repeated this same experiment on the show MythBusters. They used a wooden fishing boat as the target for the experiment. The same effects happen to the boat as the previous time they experimented. In order for them to catch the boat on fire, the wood of the boat would have needed to reach its autoignition temperature (the lowest temperature at which an object will burst into flames), which for the boat was around 300° Celsius.
When MythBusters broadcasted the results of the experiment, they claimed that the experiment was a bust or "busted" because of the length of time that was needed for combustion, the ideal weather conditions required for combustion and there was other weapons that could have easily replicated the same effect as Archimedes' heat ray. For example, flaming arrows are one of the many weapons that could have had the same effect.
A few years later, MythBusters did the heat ray experiment again in a special edition of the show, featuring Barack Obama’s President's Challenge. There were several experiments that were accomplished, including an experiment with 500 children aiming mirrors at another fake Roman sailing ship, but this time at an even larger distance than before, 120 m away. This time, they couldn't even get the sail (which has a lower autoignition temperature than the boat itself) to catch on fire , and thus the MythBusters claimed again that the experiment was a bust or "busted". For the conclusion of this show, the MythBusters said that it would have been more likely that the heat ray had blinded the crew with a dazzling light, and because of the light the crew of the ship would have been distracted.