13-Yr-Old Builds Model Proving That Archimedes ‘Death Ray’ Could Work

NEW YORK (VINnews) — Brendon Sener, a 13-year-old from London, has succeeded in proving an ancient theory which had stumped scientists for thousands of years- was there such a thing as a death ray? It has long been told in ancient lore that Archimedes ingeniously set up a group of mirrors in such a way that the sun’s rays could bounce off them and hit enemy ships with an intense ray of light, causing them to burn up. But is this scientifically possible?

Inspired by the story told of Archimedes, London teen Brenden Sener set out to make his own miniature death ray, an award-winning experiment that tested the plausibility of the long-disputed contraption.

“I came across the death ray stories and I found it very intriguing,” said Sener, 13, a Grade 8 student at Matthews Hall. “I knew there was a lot of uncertainty on whether it actually existed and I was really hoping that I would be able to prove that it could work.”

Archimedes, an ancient Greek mathematician, astronomer and inventor, allegedly used large reflectors to focus the sun’s rays on enemy ships during the Siege of Syracuse in 213–212 BC. Reports from the era said the ray, made up of many large reflectors arranged on the cliffs of the Sicilian city, was so powerful it ignited the invading boats in a flash. Archimedes himself ultimately died in the battle to capture his hometown.

The plausibility of the ancient death ray has been the subject of considerable debate over the centuries, with some scientists doubting whether it was really the weapon the legends made it out to be.

The concept was even tested on the hit Discovery Channel show MythBusters, which found that combustion using the death ray was not plausible. A team from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology came to the opposite conclusion, and so did Sener.

The 13-year-old’s miniature death ray was made up of several concave mirrors, arranged using action-figure stands, that focused a heat lamp’s rays onto a single point on a piece of paper. The set-up, experiment and science fair paper took him about a month to complete in early 2023, he said.

Sener with his experimental death ray

Using an infrared thermometer, Sener measured the temperature of the paper where the light was focused and tested out different numbers of mirrors and lightbulb wattages as part of his experiment.

While the experiment didn’t set the paper on fire – it wasn’t designed for combustion – Sener concluded the concave mirror set-up reflected and concentrated the light, increasing the temperature of the target considerably.

For the death ray to ignite a large wooden ship, however, it would require a very powerful light source and several large mirrors, Sener’s science fair paper states.

Sener’s project won gold medals at the Matthews Hall science fair and the Thames Valley science and engineering fair and a London Public Library Award in 2023.

The experiment was published in the January 2024 edition of the Canada Science Fair Journal and has received quite a bit of public attention, including write-ups by CNN and National Public Radio in the United States.

“I never expected any of that. It’s amazing,” Sener said.

Like the great thinkers of antiquity, Sener dabbles in different areas. The year before his death ray experiment, he did a science fair project on the Archimedes screw, a famous ancient invention used to move water.

Sener’s most recent science fair project, presented just a few weeks ago, was on how what we drink affects the formation of kidney stones, an experiment carried out in agar petri dishes.

“He really loves exploring new things and doing his own research,” said his dad Alp Sener. “We just encourage him and support him along the way. He really drives the ship and we provide him with the resources to try things out.”

The 13-year-old is planning to enroll in the international baccalaureate program at London’s Catholic Central high school in the fall.

“I’d love to have my future profession be in either engineering or medicine,” he said.