A 13-Year-Old Built Archimedes’ Mythical Death Ray—and It May Actually Work
Ancient Greece mathematician Archimedes believed a death ray was plausible, so a middle school student from Canada put the concept to the test.
Brenden Sener of Ontario won multiple medals for his miniature version of the Archimedes death ray, crafted with light and mirrors.
No archaeological evidence exists that proves the death ray was ever employed, but Sener believes it very well could have been.
It might be surprising to learn that then-12-year-old Brenden Sener of London, Ontario was enthralled by Ancient Greek concepts posited by mathematician Archimedes. But it probably make more sense when you find out what exactly those concepts were. You see, Archimedes wrote about harnessing the Sun’s energy to create a death ray. And Sener wanted in.
Now 13 years old, Sener has earned multiple medals for his attempt to bring the ancient device to life. In his view, he as shown that “the principle behind the Archimedes Death Ray is certainly possible,” according to his paper published in the Canadian Science Fair Journal.
While no archaeological evidence proves that the death ray—also known as a heat ray—was ever used, that doesn’t necessarily mean it didn’t happen. Sener explained that the ancient death ray was made up of a series of large concave mirrors, positioned to focus the Sun’s rays onto a single focal point and potentially hitting a target up to 1,000 feet away.
Sener crafted a miniature version of the concept. He used a heat lamp and four concave mirrors, each pointed to hit a mark on a piece of cardboard. Presented at the 2023 Matthews Hall Annual Science Fair, he found that as he added mirrors, he increased the temperature at the target location. He believes his experiments show that a larger-scale version—such as the one described in an account of the battle of Syracuse from 214 to 212 BC, which is alleged to have helped set approaching Roman ships on fire—were conceivable. Ancient efforts may have either used mirrors or highly polished shields.
“The historical descriptions of the use of the death ray in ancient Syracuse is plausible,” Sener said, “however no archeological evidence of the Archimedes death ray has been found besides what is recorded in the books of ancient philosophers.”
In an interview with CNN, Sener said he first grew fascinated with the inventions of Archimedes during a family vacation to Greece. His first project featured the Archimedes screw that helped move water, but moving water doesn’t have the same intrigue as moving the Sun’s energy.
“Archimedes was so ahead of his time with his inventions,” Sener told CNN. “And it really did revolutionize technology at that time because Archimedes was thinking about stuff that no one actually had before.”
According to CNN, Cliff Ho—a senior scientist at Sandia National Laboratories who presented on the death ray about a decade ago—commended Sener for his scientific work. He also believes that the death ray was possible, if unlikely to have been constructed or used.
Sener isn’t the first to explore the Archimedes concept. As he notes in his paper, the MythBusters series from Discovery Channel tested scenarios three different times and failed to catch a boat on fire on each attempt. Moving ships and clouds limiting the heat of the Sun would surely foil an attempt. CNN highlighted a 2005 attempt by students to recreate the ray at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology—an attempt that was successful in burning a boat once, but was unsuccessful on a retry.
Sener believes that all the testing continues to add up to plausibility. That’s all this middle schooler needs right now.
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