# Archimedes  and the siege of Syracuse

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/archimedes-and-the-siege-of-syracuse/378907>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [November 2, 2006, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/archimedes-and-the-siege-of-syracuse/378907 "2006-11-02T23:38:00Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 3

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**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\
**Post date:** [November 4, 2006, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/archimedes-and-the-siege-of-syracuse/378907/41 "2006-11-04T23:01:43Z")

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[QUOTE=OldGuy]  
Yes. As I recall they were white which tended to reflect the heat and moved a bit to much in the breeze to get a good focus on a single spot.  
[/QUOTE]

Of course, there is no really good reason to assume the sails in Archimedes’ era **were** white…

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**Author:** ![Schuyler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/54ee81/32.png) [@Schuyler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Schuyler)\
**Post date:** [November 4, 2006, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/archimedes-and-the-siege-of-syracuse/378907/42 "2006-11-04T23:25:59Z")

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So, to recap:

1. It may be possible to aim a large number of mirrors at a single target. Or it may not. This has not yet been demonstrated in a practical system against a moving target using technology that would have been available to the ancients.

2. There is little to no historical record of this having in fact been done in the battle between Syracuse and the Romans.

As an aside, can anyone offer a military technology that was successfully deployed once in antiquity, but never again fielded by that same culture or independently developed by another culture? This is not a “gotcha” question - I’m really interested in what technical/sociological characteristics such a system would have.

[QUOTE=Chronos]  
… All of a sudden, you’re blinded by a brilliant flash of light covering the hillside, and next thing you know, your ship is burning, and you have no idea why or how. …  
[/QUOTE]

As a further aside - the ignition, even in the system demonstrated by MIT, would not have been near-instantaneous. To initiate and sustain combustion until the ship’s timbers will continue to burn will take quite a bit of time (this is not kindling, but heavy boards with low surface area to mass ratio); in the MIT demonstration this was on the order of minutes, if I recall correctly.

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