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Archimedes Burning Mirror |
2012-07-17 |
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From Frakeetta:
Archimedes Burning Mirror
There is a story about Archimedes that he used a “burning mirror” in the shape of a paraboloid of revolution to set fire to enemy ships in the harbor. What would be the equation of the parabola that one would rotate to form the appropriate paraboloid if it were to be designed to set fire to a ship 100m from the mirror? How large would the burning mirror need to be? What is the likelihood that this story is true?
Answered by Robert Dawson. |
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