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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!

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