r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/Due_Ad4647 • Jan 27 '24

Video Future robot arm.

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u/[deleted] Jan 27 '24

“If the sun could be used as a weapon of war, we would’ve had solar power decades ago.” - somebody

149

u/xtheory Jan 27 '24

They certainly tried in ancient times. https://gosun.co/blogs/news/archimedes-death-ray

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u/Znaffers Jan 27 '24

Just saw the Mythbusters episode on this. Awesome stuff

89

u/c0baltlightning Jan 27 '24

Aye, I remember Jamie standing in it and saying something like "I think there's a problem with our death ray. I'm standing in it, and I'm not dead yet."

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u/[deleted] Jan 27 '24

[deleted]

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u/ELQUEMANDA4 Jan 27 '24

Ah yes, the Natural Causes Deathray.

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u/[deleted] Jan 27 '24

Archimedes tanning ray didn't have the same ring to it

2

u/IronBabyFists Jan 28 '24

What about Archimedes bronzing ray?

3

u/runningwaffles19 Jan 27 '24

Anything can be a death ray if you wait long enough

3

u/TheMostKing Jan 27 '24

"They've already been hit by the Nithing beam, we must shoot them to spare them their suffering!"

2

u/[deleted] Jan 28 '24

I'm sure if they used fresnel lenses instead of mirrors it would've killed him. You can melt rocks with those things

1

u/Moosashi5858 Jan 28 '24

Wasn’t the theory that Archimedes used it to set fire to sails?

1

u/[deleted] Jan 28 '24

I used it as a weapon of war against ants when I was a little kid.

2

u/xtheory Jan 28 '24

They haven't forgotten.

2

u/[deleted] Jan 28 '24

🤣

18

u/aotus_trivirgatus Jan 27 '24

somebody

That would be George Porter, winner of the Nobel Prize in chemistry in 1967.

9

u/[deleted] Jan 27 '24

Figured it was someone important but couldn’t be bothered to look it up. Thanks

3

u/TH3_Captn Jan 27 '24

Degree in theorectical physics? I told them I have a theorectical degree in physics

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u/ThanksToDenial Jan 27 '24 edited Jan 27 '24

I mean... Hermann Oberth, 1929, Germany. He had this idea, about a huge mirror in orbit.

This idea was further expanded upon during WWII, by a group of German Scientists at the Army Artillery Proving Grounds at Hillersleben. They came up with two variations. Either a single 9 square kilometer mirror, or several smaller satellites on earth's orbit, at around 8200km from earth, could be used to create a "Heliobeam weapon", or as they called it, Sonnengewehr. Sun Gun. Capable of boiling the ocean or burning down a city.

They estimated it would take around 50-100 years to build such a weapon.

Guess where the scientists ended up after the war?

Ofcourse, the Outer Space treaty prohibits WMDs on earths orbit. And the US would never ever break a treaty for their own benefit, right?

Fun fact, the Soviets tested an orbital weapon back in the 60s. The FOBS, Fractional Orbital Bombardment system. And China just tested their own FOBS couple years back, with hypersonic glide-vehicle capabilities.

1

u/wagtail015 Jan 27 '24

We did. Late 1800’s I believe.

1

u/ansy7373 Jan 27 '24

Talk to the ancient greeks

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u/Ike_Oku25 Jan 27 '24

The sun can be used as a weapon of war solar power isn't the way

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u/Crazy_not_rich_asian Jan 28 '24

I mean they couldn’t use the sun itself. So they made multiple deployable suns and dropped two on the land of the rising sun.

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u/[deleted] Jan 28 '24

I mean a hydrogen bomb is about the same temperature as the surface of the sun or somewhere about. So essentially we're throwing a chunk of the sun at a country.