WEBVTT - Did Archimedes build a death ray? 0:00:00.200 --> 0:00:04.519 Brought to you by the all neween Toyota Corolla. Welcome 0:00:04.559 --> 0:00:14.120 to Stuff you Should Know from House Stuff Works dot com. Hey, 0:00:14.160 --> 0:00:17.159 and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark and Charles W. 0:00:17.320 --> 0:00:20.400 Chuck Bryant is with me, and Jerry's over there, and 0:00:20.480 --> 0:00:23.760 this is Stuff you should Know. That's right, The Audio 0:00:23.800 --> 0:00:27.000 Adventure Hour. Yeah, I'm I'm telling you we need to 0:00:27.040 --> 0:00:29.080 change our names to the Audio Adventure Hour. Oh. I 0:00:29.160 --> 0:00:31.200 got to because people would be like, I said it 0:00:31.240 --> 0:00:33.080 on a recent one and he said, boy, that's that's 0:00:33.080 --> 0:00:35.800 gonna stick, and now you can't even remember it. Yeah, 0:00:35.840 --> 0:00:39.320 I have no idea what you're talking about. Which episode 0:00:39.400 --> 0:00:41.879 was it? I think it was Broken Bones Healing. Oh, 0:00:42.000 --> 0:00:46.040 that was pretty recent. It just dropped yesterday in real time. Yeah, 0:00:46.120 --> 0:00:47.760 that's a good one. Yeah, but here we are in 0:00:47.760 --> 0:00:50.040 October and it's long since forgotten. It was kind of 0:00:50.080 --> 0:00:53.880 agonizing to like just talking what was it the Green 0:00:54.200 --> 0:00:58.720 Tree or Green Stick where little kids bones break? Oh? Yeah, man, 0:00:59.240 --> 0:01:01.200 we heard from a lot of people on that too. Yeah, 0:01:01.200 --> 0:01:03.240 and everybody had a hard time listening to it. Yeah, 0:01:03.280 --> 0:01:06.679 and we got some pretty gnarly pictures. Yeah, that dude 0:01:06.680 --> 0:01:08.600 with the staples down his leg and the guy with 0:01:08.600 --> 0:01:10.800 a crooked wrist like, don't send us this stuff anymore, 0:01:10.800 --> 0:01:15.480 please stop, so Chuck. Yes, I know you're familiar with 0:01:15.520 --> 0:01:19.320 the work of economist Jeffrey D. Sachs, the Sackster, but 0:01:19.400 --> 0:01:22.479 don't I'm don't ont me bore you too much. I'll 0:01:22.480 --> 0:01:26.120 try to keep it brief. Of course, you're aware that 0:01:26.240 --> 0:01:32.039 Sacks once said that humanity can most likely reproduce its 0:01:32.080 --> 0:01:37.440 way out of any dire situation. Global warming, climate change, starvation, 0:01:38.040 --> 0:01:42.600 reaching carrying capacity, running out of water, all of these 0:01:42.600 --> 0:01:48.480 things we can paradoxically get our get ourselves out of 0:01:48.720 --> 0:01:50.920 by producing more people, more people who are going to 0:01:50.960 --> 0:01:53.760 consume more of these things. And the reason, of course 0:01:53.760 --> 0:01:57.000 that Sacks is saying this is that the more people 0:01:57.240 --> 0:01:59.840 that are produced, the higher the chances that some of 0:01:59.840 --> 0:02:03.360 those people are geniuses. And the more geniuses you have 0:02:03.480 --> 0:02:06.800 running around the planet at any given time, the more 0:02:06.880 --> 0:02:10.480 likely those geniuses are to solve the big picture problems 0:02:10.480 --> 0:02:13.480 that we face. We need more geniuses, So apparently we're 0:02:13.480 --> 0:02:17.160 all supposed to reproduce more. Um, does he account for 0:02:17.200 --> 0:02:21.399 all the dummies? Yeah, I guess what he's saying. When 0:02:21.440 --> 0:02:25.400 you put the dummies against the geniuses. Even the dummies 0:02:25.400 --> 0:02:27.840 can't on your mind, the work of enough geniuses, right, 0:02:27.960 --> 0:02:31.920 so one genius can for the undoing of a thousand dummies. 0:02:33.639 --> 0:02:36.560 But it's like, then you have the idiocracy problem. It's like, well, 0:02:36.600 --> 0:02:39.240 we need to make sure that smart people are are 0:02:39.320 --> 0:02:41.640 reproducing too. Oh, I thought you were gonna say a 0:02:41.680 --> 0:02:45.200 movie based on one joke. I love that movie. It's 0:02:45.240 --> 0:02:48.639 a cute movie. I thought it was good. It's right, 0:02:48.720 --> 0:02:52.840 it's worth in for me. Um it didn't. Yeah, no, 0:02:52.960 --> 0:02:55.760 actually it was okay, but it worth in. Okay, I'm 0:02:55.800 --> 0:03:00.680 not pooping. Um. Did you like off Space? Yeah? Sure, 0:03:01.320 --> 0:03:04.400 who didn't? I don't know, I don't. I think everybody 0:03:04.400 --> 0:03:06.840 on the planet loved Office Space. Yeah, that was a 0:03:06.840 --> 0:03:10.200 big underground hit. Still is like, it's still part of 0:03:10.240 --> 0:03:13.520 the vernacular for people to say things like flair and uh, 0:03:13.560 --> 0:03:15.799 there's always one guy in the office that's talking about 0:03:15.840 --> 0:03:20.200 it tail right. Every office has got someone quoting office 0:03:20.200 --> 0:03:22.840 space or he's a straight shooter with upper management written 0:03:22.840 --> 0:03:29.520 all over. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, so um Archimedes. Yeah, speaking 0:03:29.520 --> 0:03:33.200 of office space, Well, we're talking about genius, isn't you know? 0:03:33.280 --> 0:03:35.800 It's something to be a genius now, But when you 0:03:35.960 --> 0:03:39.360 are a genius, you basically expected to immediately sell out 0:03:39.400 --> 0:03:41.720 to the man or the government, and your ideas are 0:03:41.720 --> 0:03:45.320 going to be used for nefarious reasons against everybody else. Yeah, 0:03:45.440 --> 0:03:46.800 that's kind of how it works a lot of times, 0:03:46.840 --> 0:03:51.040 you know, like that Matt Damon soliloquy and Goodwill Hunting 0:03:51.080 --> 0:03:58.920 where he's Yeah, it's probably pretty accurate. Um, there was 0:03:58.920 --> 0:04:03.240 a time, however, where just being a genius was you 0:04:03.280 --> 0:04:07.880 could change humanity forever. And you can make an an 0:04:08.840 --> 0:04:11.600 argument that it was easier to be a genius before 0:04:13.120 --> 0:04:16.359 because you there was so much to be discovered. I 0:04:16.400 --> 0:04:20.360 totally agree, But it's still you should take your head 0:04:20.400 --> 0:04:23.680 off to guys like Archimedes, some of the earliest geniuses, 0:04:23.800 --> 0:04:27.120 because Archimedes was thank you you just did. Didn't get 0:04:27.160 --> 0:04:30.080 off my cap. He was somebody worth taking your hat 0:04:30.120 --> 0:04:34.800 off to let alone. The one thing that's possibly the 0:04:34.800 --> 0:04:38.720 biggest thing that he figured out was calculating pie. Yeah, 0:04:38.839 --> 0:04:42.440 so throw the people who can like calculate pie a 0:04:42.520 --> 0:04:45.200 hundred and fifty places or whatever, just out the window. 0:04:45.279 --> 0:04:47.200 Just throw him out in the nearest window, people who 0:04:47.240 --> 0:04:49.520 are standing next to them right now. Because this guy 0:04:49.560 --> 0:04:55.159 came up with pie originally. Yeah, he calculated pie um. 0:04:55.240 --> 0:04:57.000 If you don't know who Archimedes is, by the way, 0:04:57.040 --> 0:05:00.960 he was a mathematician and a physicist and engineer, inventor 0:05:00.960 --> 0:05:05.920 and all around renaissance man pre Renaissance. Well, let's talk 0:05:05.960 --> 0:05:07.719 about him a little bit. He was born in two 0:05:07.720 --> 0:05:11.080 eight seven b c. In Syracuse, Orange, which is a 0:05:11.200 --> 0:05:14.320 modern day Sicily. Yeah. So he was just an Italian 0:05:15.200 --> 0:05:18.040 or well that back then it was a Greek city state. Yeah, 0:05:18.080 --> 0:05:22.280 but you know like Sicily, Sicily, Yeah, you know, the 0:05:22.320 --> 0:05:25.479 old thing Sicily, Sicily. And he was one of the 0:05:25.520 --> 0:05:29.919 o g Sicilians, a Syracusian. Yeah, and he lived his 0:05:29.920 --> 0:05:33.440 whole life there and um, later in his life he 0:05:33.440 --> 0:05:36.760 would do a lot to try and protect his fair city. Right, 0:05:36.880 --> 0:05:40.720 So basically he's walking around Syracuse. Is aside from going 0:05:40.760 --> 0:05:44.280 and being educated in egypt Um, which is where a 0:05:44.279 --> 0:05:49.760 lot of the early Greek thinkers went to study. Um, he, 0:05:50.080 --> 0:05:53.040 like you said, lived his life in Syracuse, and he 0:05:53.120 --> 0:05:57.240 was basically allowed to roam around being the local odd 0:05:57.279 --> 0:06:01.520 ball because he was so far and he was he 0:06:01.520 --> 0:06:04.039 played that part pretty well. Yeah. Not only did he 0:06:04.080 --> 0:06:09.360 calculate pie first, he um worked. It wasn't quite calculus, 0:06:09.400 --> 0:06:13.200 because calculus wasn't invented, but they might as well have 0:06:13.200 --> 0:06:16.279 been calculus. He's proofs he was coming up with about 0:06:16.279 --> 0:06:19.880 two thousand years before calculus was invented, so he was 0:06:19.920 --> 0:06:23.799 pre calculus and not that classic in the eighth grade 0:06:24.120 --> 0:06:27.400 that you hated. Um, I shouldn't knock math. I always 0:06:27.440 --> 0:06:30.360 knock math. I'm sorry, don't apologize to me. I have 0:06:30.600 --> 0:06:33.440 a lot of hatred towards math. I don't want to 0:06:33.040 --> 0:06:36.800 school the utes of today, though, Go to take pre calculus. 0:06:36.839 --> 0:06:40.039 You're gonna love it. Yes, that's what I say. Yeah, 0:06:40.200 --> 0:06:42.680 I don't think you're telling anything they don't already know though, 0:06:42.720 --> 0:06:46.200 you know, like kids who math appeals to thee I 0:06:46.200 --> 0:06:48.640 have a deep admiration for those kids and don't progrudge 0:06:48.680 --> 0:06:51.800 them anything. I think you're born into it. Um. Like, 0:06:51.839 --> 0:06:54.080 if you're into math and you're a kid right now, 0:06:54.680 --> 0:06:58.240 you have you're smarter than Chuck and Josh put together. Yeah, 0:06:58.240 --> 0:07:00.560 and you've got a big advantage in life too. Yeah, 0:07:00.600 --> 0:07:04.040 because your checkbook is going to be that's right. Uh. 0:07:04.160 --> 0:07:08.480 He came up with the principle of hydro statics displacement, 0:07:08.960 --> 0:07:13.480 calculating like you're the volume of the human body or 0:07:13.520 --> 0:07:16.000 really anything. But at first it was a human body 0:07:16.000 --> 0:07:17.720 because he did it by getting in a bathtub and 0:07:17.760 --> 0:07:21.600 its spilled over. Let's talk about this makes sense? Yeah, 0:07:21.640 --> 0:07:23.960 and what did he do when he figured out that? 0:07:24.160 --> 0:07:27.640 He ran around naked? Apparently shouting eureka, which means I've 0:07:27.640 --> 0:07:30.960 got it. Let's talk about the story behind us. So 0:07:31.480 --> 0:07:35.200 there was a king who had a pretty favorable opinion 0:07:35.760 --> 0:07:39.800 of Archimedes, King Hero the second, I believe, and uh, 0:07:40.000 --> 0:07:42.920 King Hero came to our comedies. This is a story 0:07:43.400 --> 0:07:47.080 with a crown that a local goldsmith had made. He 0:07:47.120 --> 0:07:50.920 had commissioned a local goldsmith to make for him, and 0:07:51.240 --> 0:07:55.800 the king said, hey, our commedies. I suspect I gave 0:07:55.840 --> 0:07:58.600 this local goldsmith the gold to make this count, but 0:07:58.680 --> 0:08:01.440 I suspect that he replaced some of the gold with silver, 0:08:02.080 --> 0:08:04.320 and that this isn't a pure gold crown. And I 0:08:04.320 --> 0:08:07.160 wanted to gold crown. Can you help me? You're smart guy, yeah, 0:08:07.200 --> 0:08:10.080 can you help me figure that out? And our community 0:08:10.120 --> 0:08:11.960 is just like, oh man, this is a tough one. 0:08:11.960 --> 0:08:13.760 And he thought and thought and thought and thought for 0:08:13.800 --> 0:08:16.280 a long time. And it was when, like you said, 0:08:16.480 --> 0:08:19.520 he was in a bath he was lowering himself into 0:08:19.520 --> 0:08:22.200 the bath that some water spilled over that he came 0:08:22.280 --> 0:08:27.720 up with what's called Archimedes principle of hydrostatics, which basically 0:08:27.760 --> 0:08:33.640 says that um the the an object, the volume of 0:08:33.640 --> 0:08:38.719 an object just places an equal volume of water. Right, 0:08:39.280 --> 0:08:42.800 So we have things like airships or not water but 0:08:42.880 --> 0:08:45.840 fluid which can be water or air or gas, liquid 0:08:45.920 --> 0:08:51.480 or gas. So we have like airships, a ka Zeppelin's ship, ships, 0:08:51.720 --> 0:08:55.960 ship ships as yet things that float and don't sink. 0:08:56.360 --> 0:08:58.480 We can thank our our communities for the math that 0:08:58.600 --> 0:09:02.080 led to those. But anyway, so he's got this crown right, 0:09:02.960 --> 0:09:04.760 And it was when he was in the bath that 0:09:04.840 --> 0:09:07.319 he realized how we could figure out how the crown 0:09:07.360 --> 0:09:10.000 is pure, whether it was or not. He weighed the 0:09:10.040 --> 0:09:13.840 crown and then got a bar of gold that he 0:09:13.920 --> 0:09:17.080 knew was pure that way, the exact same as the crown. 0:09:17.840 --> 0:09:21.520 He had a cylinder of water or bats of water. 0:09:21.559 --> 0:09:25.800 He had a receptacle of water filled to the brim 0:09:25.800 --> 0:09:31.320 with water, Like we said water he drops the gold 0:09:31.400 --> 0:09:37.080 into is my natural aversion to understanding math showing I 0:09:37.120 --> 0:09:40.440 feel like it is. He has this receptacle of water 0:09:40.520 --> 0:09:43.200 filled to the brim. He takes this bar of pure gold, 0:09:43.520 --> 0:09:46.199 drops it into the receptacle and it just places water 0:09:46.600 --> 0:09:51.120 just placed his place, right. So now he takes the 0:09:51.160 --> 0:09:55.319 gold out and the volume of water has been reduced, 0:09:55.640 --> 0:09:58.320 some of it's filled out, right, that's equal to the 0:09:58.400 --> 0:10:02.920 volume which produced by the density of the gold of 0:10:03.000 --> 0:10:07.440 the gold. Okay, so now he's got the gold crown. 0:10:08.280 --> 0:10:11.160 If he drops the gold crown into this receptacle of 0:10:11.160 --> 0:10:13.679 water and it brings the water up to the exact 0:10:13.800 --> 0:10:17.040 level that it was before the gold bar was dropped 0:10:17.080 --> 0:10:20.600 in there, that means that the density of the gold 0:10:20.640 --> 0:10:25.520 crown and the density of the equal weight gold bar 0:10:25.800 --> 0:10:28.200 are the same, meaning that the gold crown is pure. Yeah, 0:10:28.240 --> 0:10:30.200 and that's the key I don't think you mentioned at 0:10:30.200 --> 0:10:33.080 the beginning was that the gold bar he had was 0:10:33.120 --> 0:10:36.319 supposedly the same amount of gold as what was used 0:10:36.360 --> 0:10:38.960 to make the crown, same way, so it should have 0:10:39.000 --> 0:10:42.319 the same exact density. Now, silver has a different density 0:10:42.360 --> 0:10:46.480 than gold, so the same weight of a bar of 0:10:46.520 --> 0:10:49.360 gold and a bar of silver have different densities, which 0:10:49.360 --> 0:10:52.400 means that if the guy had added some silver to this, 0:10:52.960 --> 0:10:56.280 the amount of water wouldn't come back up to the top. 0:10:56.520 --> 0:10:59.520 So it happened who knows who cares. Oh wait, you 0:10:59.559 --> 0:11:02.679 don't have an ending to that story. The ending is 0:11:02.720 --> 0:11:06.200 that he figured this out and uh he ran naked 0:11:06.200 --> 0:11:09.959 to the street shot in Eureka, Eureka. Oh man, Now 0:11:10.000 --> 0:11:13.040 I have to know was the gold crown gold or 0:11:13.120 --> 0:11:15.839 was it gold and silver. We're gonna go ahead and 0:11:15.880 --> 0:11:18.520 say it's gold, because if it were gold and silver, 0:11:18.600 --> 0:11:21.240 then the king would surely have to slay the goldsmith. 0:11:21.280 --> 0:11:23.480 And I have the impression that King Hero the second 0:11:23.520 --> 0:11:30.080 of Syracuse was a fairly benevolent, beneficent, beneficent king. Hold on, 0:11:30.240 --> 0:11:32.199 before we're go any further, what do you think about 0:11:32.200 --> 0:11:41.640 a message break? That's great? Alright, so our comedian has 0:11:41.679 --> 0:11:43.760 done talking for the rest of the podcast. No, you're not. 0:11:44.040 --> 0:11:46.360 He Uh so he was a smart guy, that's what 0:11:46.440 --> 0:11:50.320 that story equals. Yes, he um he was. He was 0:11:50.360 --> 0:11:55.320 an inventor, but he was more than inventor in my opinion. 0:11:55.640 --> 0:11:59.000 He was a modifier of inventions. Like he didn't invent 0:11:59.400 --> 0:12:03.640 the catapult old, but he made the catapult into a 0:12:03.720 --> 0:12:07.000 variable range weapon instead of a fixed range weapon, much 0:12:07.040 --> 0:12:11.920 more useful. Yes, he didn't invent um the water screw. 0:12:12.880 --> 0:12:14.360 He didn't been in the water screw. I think didn't 0:12:14.360 --> 0:12:17.920 he Apparently it's an Egyptian really thing that he found 0:12:18.080 --> 0:12:21.360 an improved Okay, well, good for him, though I'm not 0:12:21.400 --> 0:12:23.640 saying that like, well they call it our comedes screw. 0:12:23.760 --> 0:12:26.600 Well yeah, ever, the impression he wouldn't have called it that. 0:12:27.320 --> 0:12:29.000 I don't think he was much of a self promoter. 0:12:29.120 --> 0:12:31.480 He was a producer, you think, so, yeah, he just 0:12:31.520 --> 0:12:36.360 got the work done, alright. So eventually his his tinkering 0:12:36.440 --> 0:12:38.720 and his obsession, like he would get really fixated on 0:12:38.760 --> 0:12:42.280 his work, would lead to his death. Um. Although he 0:12:42.360 --> 0:12:45.720 was old. He was seventy five, and uh, that's got 0:12:45.720 --> 0:12:50.040 to be old for that age. Oh sure before the commentary, Yeah, 0:12:50.200 --> 0:12:53.439 heck yeah, he was really old. Uh. And a Roman soldier. 0:12:53.880 --> 0:12:57.040 I've seen varying accounts of this story, um, but the 0:12:57.080 --> 0:12:59.040 gist of it is is that a Roman soldier came 0:12:59.040 --> 0:13:01.400 in and said, hey, you need to go meet with 0:13:01.440 --> 0:13:05.960 General Marcellus, because Marcellus we're in charge here now. Marcellus 0:13:05.960 --> 0:13:09.439 wants to meet with you. Um. He's got a briefcase, 0:13:12.120 --> 0:13:14.000 uh and a mysterious band aid on the back of 0:13:14.000 --> 0:13:17.080 his neck. Um. And so he goes in there and 0:13:17.080 --> 0:13:19.120 he says, you know, General Marcellus wants to meet with you. 0:13:19.240 --> 0:13:23.240 And Archimedes was in the middle of uh his math, 0:13:23.320 --> 0:13:25.760 basically trying to come up with some new proofs, you know, 0:13:25.840 --> 0:13:28.240 like he's creating a geometric proof or something, right, And 0:13:28.240 --> 0:13:29.920 he was in the middle of it. Yeah, and he 0:13:29.960 --> 0:13:32.360 had drawn this on the floor. It was all drawn out, 0:13:33.040 --> 0:13:36.480 and um, one account I saw what he said. No, 0:13:36.640 --> 0:13:39.079 I'm like, I'm too busy. I can't go see him now. 0:13:39.440 --> 0:13:41.200 And the guy got angry and killed him with a sword. 0:13:41.840 --> 0:13:45.080 You found that he was beaten to death. Either way, 0:13:45.200 --> 0:13:47.440 he died, but he had said something along the lines 0:13:47.480 --> 0:13:50.800 of don't disturb my circles, very dismissively to this Roman soldier, 0:13:51.120 --> 0:13:53.680 which pissed him off. Yeah, and so the Roman soldier 0:13:53.760 --> 0:13:56.840 killed him one way or another exactly. And apparently, um, 0:13:56.920 --> 0:13:59.400 the Roman soldier didn't realize who he was. Well, No, 0:13:59.679 --> 0:14:02.000 General of Marcellus was not too happy, no, because he 0:14:02.040 --> 0:14:04.720 wanted to use him. Yeah, our comedies was very well 0:14:04.760 --> 0:14:08.080 known around this area. Um. And the whole reason that 0:14:08.160 --> 0:14:10.440 a Roman soldier was even in our comedies's house in 0:14:10.480 --> 0:14:15.160 the first place was because they were besieging and had 0:14:15.240 --> 0:14:20.040 been besieging Syracuse for two years. Two full years. Well, yeah, 0:14:20.040 --> 0:14:23.760 they Syracuse was surrounded by a sixteen mile wall, so 0:14:23.880 --> 0:14:27.120 it was very fortified city, right, So it wasn't the 0:14:27.160 --> 0:14:29.360 kind of place you could just waltz in and siege, 0:14:29.680 --> 0:14:31.440 right like this will be an afternoon siege. It was 0:14:31.440 --> 0:14:33.920 a two year siege. So here's the weird thing. For 0:14:34.680 --> 0:14:40.000 about fifty years of King Hero the second reign Um, 0:14:40.720 --> 0:14:44.400 this city state, the Greek city state of Syracuse, allied 0:14:44.440 --> 0:14:47.720 itself with Rome. Everything was fine, it was a time 0:14:47.760 --> 0:14:51.840 of peace. The Romans were, you know, pretty much conquering 0:14:51.840 --> 0:14:54.880 the world at the forefront of everything, yeah, and taking 0:14:54.880 --> 0:14:58.760 care of their friends, including Syracuse. But um, King Hero's 0:14:58.800 --> 0:15:04.320 successor has son Um decided to go and allie Syracuse 0:15:04.400 --> 0:15:08.080 with Carthage. The general Hannibal had recently had some pretty 0:15:08.120 --> 0:15:12.160 good victories and it caught the attention of Hero's successor, 0:15:12.800 --> 0:15:16.680 and as a result that his successor was assassinated in 0:15:16.680 --> 0:15:19.240 like thirteen months, and there's a lot of civil strife 0:15:19.320 --> 0:15:21.280 that kind of came about as a result of this. 0:15:21.400 --> 0:15:24.200 Syracuse was divided. We should allie with Carthage, we should 0:15:24.200 --> 0:15:28.800 a lie with Rome. Well, whatever the case was, there 0:15:29.920 --> 0:15:33.960 complete alliance to Rome had been shattered, and Rome sent 0:15:34.360 --> 0:15:37.480 General Marcellus to negotiate at first, I guess, to get 0:15:37.520 --> 0:15:40.480 them back on their side. And when negotiations failed, he 0:15:40.520 --> 0:15:44.360 started to attack the city. And when he attacked the city, 0:15:44.800 --> 0:15:48.440 Archimedes war machines were unleashed upon the Romans. Well. Yeah, 0:15:48.440 --> 0:15:50.680 they went to Archimedes and they said, you're a smart guy. 0:15:51.040 --> 0:15:54.480 Can you figure out some it's some innovative ways to 0:15:54.640 --> 0:15:59.720 thwart these people? And he said, hey, it's no problem, 0:15:59.760 --> 0:16:02.720 you know. Uh So one of the things he came 0:16:02.800 --> 0:16:04.840 up with, and I love his warp machines because it's 0:16:04.880 --> 0:16:07.760 just kind of cool stuff. It's all like back in 0:16:07.800 --> 0:16:11.920 that day, it was all very practically oriented with pulleys 0:16:11.920 --> 0:16:14.880 and levers and things. You know. It wasn't like you know, 0:16:15.160 --> 0:16:17.680 nuclear fission's like, hey, let me think how I can 0:16:17.800 --> 0:16:22.200 use these drop these big heavy things onto people the 0:16:22.280 --> 0:16:25.040 best with the with the people that I have at 0:16:25.120 --> 0:16:28.120 my disposal, which is a lot of people. Uh. One 0:16:28.240 --> 0:16:30.760 My favorite thing was the iron hand or the iron 0:16:30.840 --> 0:16:35.560 Archimedes claw. Uh. This was basically it's like a large 0:16:35.680 --> 0:16:40.520 lever with a grappling hook um and that would hang 0:16:40.880 --> 0:16:45.680 uh uh flush with the walls. So they wouldn't see it, 0:16:45.800 --> 0:16:48.240 you know. And then when the ships would come into 0:16:48.240 --> 0:16:51.360 the harbor, they would swing this thing out. They would 0:16:51.360 --> 0:16:55.600 lower the boom literally and this grappling hook would attach 0:16:55.680 --> 0:16:57.400 onto the front of a ship or any part of 0:16:57.400 --> 0:16:59.560 the ship would be great, and they would have all 0:16:59.560 --> 0:17:03.040 these people and oxen and things that would immediately yank 0:17:03.120 --> 0:17:06.760 it up and basically yank these ships either in half 0:17:06.880 --> 0:17:09.720 or tip them over and capsize them, or drop them 0:17:09.880 --> 0:17:11.520 in the front end out of the water and then 0:17:11.840 --> 0:17:13.640 release it and then drop it back in the water 0:17:13.680 --> 0:17:15.919 where the boat would break or capsize right exactly, and 0:17:15.960 --> 0:17:18.880 the the sailors would be shaken off. And these are 0:17:18.880 --> 0:17:23.040 big ships. Supposedly, Um, they were called quinn Querines. Yeah, 0:17:23.080 --> 0:17:25.040 that was the ship of the day. Yeah, And those 0:17:25.080 --> 0:17:28.119 things weighed about a hundred metric tons and um, like 0:17:28.160 --> 0:17:31.000 four dudes on these things were not small. They weren't small. 0:17:31.080 --> 0:17:34.680 And there was supposedly this giant iron claw that could 0:17:34.680 --> 0:17:37.480 pick them up and shake the people off and then 0:17:37.520 --> 0:17:40.920 throw the ship back into the seat. And they think 0:17:40.920 --> 0:17:43.720 that it was probably balanced with the counterweight rather than 0:17:43.800 --> 0:17:47.240 say like pulice, which some accounts have it as um 0:17:47.280 --> 0:17:50.080 because the counterweight would be it would balance out the 0:17:50.080 --> 0:17:54.439 weight of this huge arm and the claw um, meaning 0:17:54.480 --> 0:17:57.080 that just a few people could move it up and 0:17:57.119 --> 0:17:59.720 down inside to side when they needed to because the 0:17:59.720 --> 0:18:02.240 bull because the way it was countered. And again, he 0:18:02.240 --> 0:18:07.920 didn't invent this, but he modified existing things to make 0:18:08.080 --> 0:18:12.680 war machines. Basically. Uh, And we should say it's entirely 0:18:12.720 --> 0:18:17.240 possible the iron hand or iron claw didn't exist or 0:18:17.320 --> 0:18:23.119 existed in some less fantastic fashion less um less James 0:18:23.119 --> 0:18:29.159 West fashion um. But it's possible and probable even that 0:18:29.240 --> 0:18:31.920 it was. There was something like that that was used 0:18:32.200 --> 0:18:35.600 during the Siege of Syracuse. Yeah. That's the coolest things 0:18:35.600 --> 0:18:37.280 to me is that this stuff, this is so long 0:18:37.320 --> 0:18:39.880 ago that we don't have the great records, so there's 0:18:39.880 --> 0:18:43.920 a lot of speculation of how he did it. It's 0:18:43.960 --> 0:18:45.719 just like how the pyramids built. You know. It's kind 0:18:45.720 --> 0:18:47.439 of fun to sit around and tease your brain with 0:18:47.480 --> 0:18:51.720 that stuff or build these things like Discovery Channel did 0:18:52.040 --> 0:18:54.479 on their show super Weapons of the Ancient World. They 0:18:54.520 --> 0:18:57.080 built an iron hand. Did it work? Heck yeah, I 0:18:57.119 --> 0:18:59.719 did nice. I mean it's not it's very basic. It's like, 0:19:00.040 --> 0:19:01.880 let me lower this big hook onto your ship and 0:19:02.240 --> 0:19:03.600 use a lot of force to pull it up and 0:19:03.640 --> 0:19:07.360 then drop it. It's like the claw that you used 0:19:07.400 --> 0:19:09.960 to like win stuff at the bowling alley out of 0:19:09.960 --> 0:19:14.520 those machines. Uh, well, an upside down version of that. Oh, 0:19:14.600 --> 0:19:16.240 is it like a it's a hook. Yeah, it's a 0:19:16.240 --> 0:19:19.959 grappling hook. Okay, but the nomenclature of the day that 0:19:20.040 --> 0:19:22.359 was called a claw, I got you. Yeah, okay, So 0:19:22.440 --> 0:19:29.080 let's take another a little second for a message break. Okay, 0:19:30.359 --> 0:19:32.080 all right, so let's get back to it. So you 0:19:32.119 --> 0:19:35.120 have the iron claw that was probably for real and 0:19:35.280 --> 0:19:39.360 used against Rome because it was mentioned several times by um, 0:19:39.520 --> 0:19:45.360 not necessarily contemporary historians, but Plutarch mentions it in Plutark 0:19:45.359 --> 0:19:48.520 did a lot of the historical recording of the day 0:19:49.000 --> 0:19:51.200 for our comedies, but it was about two fifty years 0:19:51.240 --> 0:19:57.040 after our comedies lived. Um, there was another one that 0:19:57.160 --> 0:20:02.680 was pretty cool. May not have existed, but it was possible, 0:20:03.240 --> 0:20:06.800 and it's called Archimedes death ray. Cool name. It's a 0:20:06.840 --> 0:20:09.600 great name, the greatest name for a weapon ever, probably 0:20:09.720 --> 0:20:12.760 our comedies death ray. What about a band name. I'm 0:20:12.800 --> 0:20:16.959 sure that someone has taken that one in, don't you think, Yeah, 0:20:17.000 --> 0:20:19.960 there's an Archimedes death right out there. Okay, alright, fine, 0:20:20.240 --> 0:20:23.320 our comedies deathrays taken. It's got to be. But it 0:20:23.440 --> 0:20:26.800 is a cool thing. The thing is is it's not mentioned. 0:20:26.840 --> 0:20:31.560 It's mentioned a couple of times by some historians, even 0:20:31.680 --> 0:20:38.879 a A a couple that are fairly close who wrote 0:20:38.920 --> 0:20:41.480 fairly close after the Siege of Syracuse. Well, now, what's 0:20:41.480 --> 0:20:45.720 considered fairly close a couple hundred years, so Galen does 0:20:45.760 --> 0:20:50.119 not vol into that category about three fifty years after. Okay, 0:20:50.119 --> 0:20:54.280 so let's say Galen mentions it, but he doesn't call 0:20:54.320 --> 0:20:59.240 anything a death ray obviously. He he basically says, um 0:20:59.359 --> 0:21:05.239 that Archimedes burned ships remotely. I don't remember exactly how 0:21:05.280 --> 0:21:07.600 he says it, but he just kind of he says 0:21:07.640 --> 0:21:11.000 that they Romans ships burned from Afar because of one 0:21:11.040 --> 0:21:15.120 of archimedes weapons, and he just mentions it. It's not 0:21:15.320 --> 0:21:18.639 until five a d. About seven hundred years after the 0:21:18.680 --> 0:21:22.000 fact that they named it, that a guy named Anthemius 0:21:22.080 --> 0:21:26.520 of Trellis, who is talking about mirrored surfaces, mentions off 0:21:26.560 --> 0:21:30.960 handedly that Archimedies probably used a mirrored parabola to burn 0:21:31.040 --> 0:21:34.560 these ships. So it was known that Archimedes used something 0:21:34.800 --> 0:21:38.720 to burn ships remotely. Um. And then it's not until 0:21:38.800 --> 0:21:43.199 five D that Anthemius says this is probably what it was, 0:21:43.400 --> 0:21:45.920 and the idea of the Archimedes that's way really kind 0:21:45.920 --> 0:21:49.240 of took shape from there. Yeah. And if you've never 0:21:49.400 --> 0:21:51.280 seen one in action, because a lot of people tried 0:21:51.320 --> 0:21:55.440 to recreate these very successfully. Yeah, there's a that video. 0:21:55.520 --> 0:21:58.440 The nineteen year old kid in two thousand eleven named 0:21:58.520 --> 0:22:02.480 Eric Jacques Mayne from Indiana. He built one out of 0:22:02.520 --> 0:22:07.560 a satellite dish and little discobald mirrorses and uh it 0:22:07.640 --> 0:22:11.359 worked like man, he could melt stuff and melt aluminum 0:22:11.400 --> 0:22:15.200 and catch things on fire and he's pretty ingenious. Somehow 0:22:15.280 --> 0:22:18.239 melted a rock or singe the rock somehow. Yeah, and 0:22:18.480 --> 0:22:21.200 he said it committed suicide. He thinks it burned itself 0:22:21.400 --> 0:22:23.919 in a barn, like the sun hit it wrong and 0:22:23.920 --> 0:22:26.359 it caught the barn on the fire. But apparently he's 0:22:26.400 --> 0:22:27.720 making a new one. I don't know how he's coming 0:22:27.720 --> 0:22:29.960 along on that, Yeah, but it's a pretty interesting little 0:22:30.040 --> 0:22:32.480 video to watch. Yeah. But the idea is that you're 0:22:32.600 --> 0:22:35.960 using you're harnessing the energy of the sun just sort 0:22:35.960 --> 0:22:37.800 of like you would have a magnifying glass to create 0:22:37.840 --> 0:22:41.679 a very small focal point of extreme heat to catch 0:22:41.920 --> 0:22:43.639 a boat on fire. Right, And this is but this 0:22:43.680 --> 0:22:46.960 is from reflection. You're using mirrors. The more mirrored and 0:22:47.000 --> 0:22:51.359 polished the surfaces, the more um genuinely it reflects the 0:22:51.400 --> 0:22:53.960 original beam of light back. And if you can take 0:22:54.040 --> 0:22:58.960 him and put him in a concave, uh parabola, you 0:22:59.000 --> 0:23:00.920 can focus them all to a point, like you said, 0:23:01.000 --> 0:23:04.080 And when you focus them on to that point, you have, however, 0:23:04.160 --> 0:23:09.800 many little mirrors reflections focus into a beam that you 0:23:09.840 --> 0:23:13.920 can use to set something remotely on fire. Now, did 0:23:13.920 --> 0:23:17.520 they have magnifying glasses at the time. They have mirrord surfaces, No, 0:23:17.560 --> 0:23:20.920 not mirrored, but did they have magnifying glasses they didn't 0:23:21.040 --> 0:23:24.399 know they would have used mirrors. No, No, I'm not 0:23:24.440 --> 0:23:26.600