Tuesday, January 23, 2007

Wacky Website

January 23rd:

Ancient sources reported that during the seige of Syracuse in 212 B.C., Greek mathematician and engineer Archimedes constructed a "death ray" that set the Roman ships afire. A group of MIT students decided to see if they could duplicate the feat. After a trial run in which the sun refused to cooperate, they finally succeeded: Using a battalion of mirrors, they were able to ignite a wooden mock-up of the ship.

http://web.mit.edu/2.009/www/lectures/10_ArchimedesResult.html

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