Skip to main content

Mirrors

From the NPR website "Legend has it that the mathematician Archimedes invented a giant mirror that used the sun to set Roman warships afire during battle in 212 B.C. But many have wondered whether the story is a myth. Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor David Wallace decided to test it out with a team of students." The website for the MIT team is here. Definitely check this page out. The photo below is actually from the Mythbusters TV show, I think.

It's just neat isn't it? Even though the ship didn't actually burn, and thus, brings into doubt whether Archimedes really succeeded...but this is what I like so much about Western education and science. People can get creative and try to prove things, and often it's not only important ideas, but fun along the way too. We've really got to bring this aspect into the typical Asian education; replace rote memorization of useless, banal facts with creative endeavors.

I've also learned today that mirrors are important for looking at yourself while dancing so as not to look clumsy and stoopid! They're also useful for stealing glances at that girl you like while she's not watching! Mirrors are also important if you're a Queen/witch so vain and narcissistic that you try to poison your adopted daughter who ends up getting brought up by dwarfs. What an invention, mirrors, though that last one was a talking mirror, and I don't have anything like that. I wonder what the first man would have thought upon seeing his own reflection? Perhaps the comic scene...first fright since he thinks it is another being, then, curiosity and maybe a little anger because the movements of the one in front are precisely the same as his and then, it dawns that it is himself, and finally delight at the discovery!

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

This weekend sucks!

So the Yankees are facing an uphill battle against the Angels. Hope they pull out of this one. The game today was pretty intense. Down 5-0 then went up 6-5 only to be beaten 11-7. Ugh! I don't know, they just lacked the stamina to pull things through today. Then again, I don't fault them. NY has a pretty tense weekend with the bomb alert, and I pray that all will be well. After all, in my heart NYC is still my home. This weekend is Fall Break. Unfortunately for me, the weather is bad so I probably can't go hiking, and then my boss told me Thursday that we have work to do over the weekend. Right now I am busy testing the microwave/rf generators for our quantum dot gate pulsing. We need to make sure that we can maintain the pulse form sent down to the sample with minimal distortion, reflection, attenuation and loss. This is made particularly difficult due to the size of our metal gates (which I made), on the order of 100 nm or less in width and less than 20 nm in thickness. S...

September 11, 2001

It's been a few years, and how things have changed. Or have they? I wrote this email shortly after the events of September 11, 2001 to family and a few friends. I thought I'd put it up here, I'm not sure why now, but it just felt like something I'd like to do (it seems I forgot to capitalize letters or even put in apostrophes back then). Sept 11 2001 our lives will never be the same. yesterday we witnessed the destruction of two american symbols of power: our military might and economic prowess. i woke up early yesterday, expecting to continue the routine of going to classes and such, happy that i had begun the day so early and hoping to accomplish much. i headed for pupin at around 940 to talk to a prof about taking a graduate level class, cheerful and optimistic knowing that i would be challenging myself with the courses i chose this semester. i finally realized something was wrong when i reached his office and saw him looking out the window, the sky covered wi...