<h5>Who is this boy?</h5><p>Brenden Sener is a 13-year-old boy from Ontario, Canada. For his school’s science fair project, Brenden built a really cool mini version of Archimedes’ Death Ray.</p><h5>Death ray? What’s that?</h5><p>A death ray is a fictional or theoretical weapon that may release tremendous beams of energy, generally causing destruction or death.</p><p>Even though it sounds fictional, a famous ancient Greek inventor named Archimedes is said to have come up with the idea to use the sun’s power as a weapon. He named the device the Archimedes Death Ray.</p><h5>How did the Archimedes Death Ray work?</h5><figure class="image"><img src="https://firebasestorage.googleapis.com/v0/b/newsahoot.appspot.com/o/death-ray-created-by-teenager%2FDeath%20Ray.jpg?alt=media&amp;token=cb6caeaf-ffbc-4ea2-a7c4-41c94f3c083c"><figcaption>The concept of Archimedes death ray. Photo by Joseph Lee on LinkedIn.</figcaption></figure><p>The Archimedes Death Ray had many large concave mirrors positioned to direct sunlight on a single location, heating it up and setting it on fire. Think how a magnifying glass can set a paper on fire by focusing sunlight on it. The death ray did something similar.</p><p>It is said that Archimedes’ invention was used to set Roman ships on fire during ancient battles. Sadly, there’s no evidence that Archimedes’ device ever existed, and many have questioned whether this device will actually work.</p><p>Brenden Sener’s middle school science fair project shows Archimedes’ Death Ray could work.</p><h5>Did Brenden burn ships?</h5><figure class="image"><img src="https://firebasestorage.googleapis.com/v0/b/newsahoot.appspot.com/o/death-ray-created-by-teenager%2FExperiment%201.jpg?alt=media&amp;token=3d11c31c-b116-429f-a8a3-c3520ce57d29"><figcaption>Brenden’s experiment. Photo by CNN.</figcaption></figure><p>Thankfully, no. Brenden Sener created a miniature version of the Archimedes Death Ray. He used a heating lamp, four small concave mirrors, and cardboard for his experiment.</p><p>As the mirrors focused the lamp’s light to a marked spot on the cardboard, the target point’s temperature increased with the addition of each mirror.</p><p>But Brenden’s aim was not to set anything on fire, just to prove that it could be possible with big enough mirrors and sunlight instead of a heating lamp. But such a weapon is not likely to be built in reality.</p><h5>Why is that?</h5><p>Making a powerful Archimedes death ray would be unlikely for several reasons. First, the device would have to be huge in size, making it impractical to build. Secondly, it's difficult to accurately hit a moving target by focusing sunlight on it.</p><p>Fun fact: The Olympic torch is lit by focusing sunlight through a curved mirror, which concentrates the light in a single location. But doing this is much easier compared to burning huge moving targets.</p><div class="raw-html-embed"><figure> <iframe width="100%" height="350" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/UdM9bwG6Qfk" title="The Lighting of the Olympic Flame | Tokyo 2020" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen=""></iframe><figcaption>The Olympic torch being lighted using sunlight. Video by Tokyo 2020.</figcaption></figure></div><p>But the death ray is still a cool idea that has been used many times in stories and science fiction!</p>

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