Mirrors, Archimedes, & Mythbusters

Last week, during our dawn dog walk at at the old naval air station, I noticed chalk lines and a long line of sawhorses set up on the paved pathway. They were covered with wooden planks, and poles had been set in the ground between the pathway and the shore near the boat ramp. There were two boats in the water. One was a wooden sailboat with an eye painted near its prow, and the other a smaller, white boat with two seats—perhaps fiberglass. 

The next day I met a friend, Ray, and as we walked our three dogs we noticed that a light screening had been added to the poles, and it was all being guarded by a security officer, who told us they were going to film a TV show.

 Later on Ray spoke to a teacher at Encinal, the local high school next to the boat ramp, who said that Mythbusters was going to film a show about how some ancient Greek had purportedly used mirrors to reflect sunlight and burn the sails of an attacking Roman fleet.

 I spun around the gray cells a bit and came up the name: Archimedes. The eye did look a bit like the ones you see on ancient Greek ships.

 The confusing thing is that it seems Mythbusters has already tried this once, and declared it a bust.

Have they refined their approach?

 They were supposed to begin around 8 am, so we walked the dogs again starting at 7:30 on Sunday morning, and this time the caution tape was up and they wouldn’t let us take our usual path. (Rully! How rude…) Lots of cars in the parking lot beyond their caution tape, workers ambling around, and electronic equipment being set up.  We hung out for a bit, but it looked like it would be a while, and we all had things to do, including brewing 10 gallons of IPA. It seems they were going to use hundreds of high school students to focus the reflected light on the sailboat. And who knows how long it might take to wake up all those kids and get them to focus the mirrors on that sail?

 Besides, a big fuel truck showed up, and my wife figured large-scale combustion would doubtless ensue. We abandoned the field of scientific and tele-entertaining research.

 Monday morning I took the dogs out again before work. The planks were gone, as was the net fencing and poles, but the boat was still there—a little farther offshore, but unburnt. There was also a stack of mirrors, cushioned by frames, yet every mirror was cracked. Looking down the stack I could see some were fractured pretty bad. Hmm—is this what happens when you employ teenagers with heavy, breakable equipment?

Now I wish I’d brought a camera. If nothing else, to show you the boat. I’ve no idea how it all turns out, except I don’t think the sail burns.

 If you happen to see an episode of Mythbusters on Alameda, Archimedes and his mirrors, let me know, okay?

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