MIT students prove Myth Busters wrong
There was an episode on Myth Busters where they tried to light a boat on fire to test a Greek/Roman myth. The MBs were unsuccessful, but the MIT students were not! Here’s the scoop…
Ancient Greek and Roman historians recorded that during the siege of Syracuse in 212 BC, Archimedes (a notably smart person) constructed a burning glass to set the Roman warships, anchored within bow and arrow range, afire. The story has been much debated and oft dismissed as myth.
TV’s MythBusters were not able to replicate the feat and “busted” the myth.
Intrigued by the idea and an intuitive belief that it could work, MIT’s 2.009ers decided to apply the early product development ‘sketch or soft modeling’ process to the problem.
Our goal was not to make a decision on the myth—we just wanted to assess if it was at least possible, and have some fun in the process. Jumping ahead, you can see the result… but let’s start at the beginning of the process.
Yay for geeky science stuff! It’s a fun read or at least worth a look at the pictures/video, so go check it out.