Some people spend their spare time watching TV or reading, but one UA scientist found a different way to utilize his free time.
He built a death ray.
Mike Bushroe, senior staff engineer at the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, began building his ancient weapon of doom after the TV show "MythBusters" challenged viewers to reconstruct Archimedes's legendary solar weapon.
Each week, "MythBusters" tries to debunk ancient myths and legends by restaging them in modern times.
According to legend, Archimedes set an invading Roman fleet ablaze during the battle of Syracuse in 215 B.C. using a series of mirrors.
Bushroe undertook both aspects of the "MythBusters" challenge to viewers to construct both small- and large-scale working models using materials available to Archimedes and use them to light a wooden object on fire from 100 feet.
As a result of his efforts, Bushroe was awarded a coveted spot on the show, which aired Jan. 25 on the Discovery Channel.
"So far only five fans have been on the show," Bushroe said.
The MythBusters"busted" the Archimedes myth in an earlier episode but decided to revisit it after viewers wrote in saying it could be done.
Although the wooden boat eventually caught fire, the show concluded the myth was "rebusted" after Bushroe and a team of Massachusetts Institute of Technology engineering students were unable to ignite the boat within the given criteria.
What took form in Bushroe's backyard was a mirrored, octagon-shaped dish that was taller than the tallest point of his house, Bushroe said.
The construction took Bushroe five weeks to complete, from designing to the actual implementation of the giant series of mirrors. Bushroe estimated he put 400 hours into the entire project.
The UA scientist would not disclose exactly how much the project cost.
"I'll only say a lot, a very lot," Bushroe said. "Once I got started, I didn't want to quit."
He was given the chance to test his own death ray, the only fan-built large-scale entry, while filming the show in October with the MIT students.
Bushroe's device, however, had trouble making the journey to San Francisco, where the show is filmed.
"It doesn't exactly fit in a station wagon," he said.
After unsuccessfully trying to load the death ray into a U-Haul truck, Bushroe hired a shipping company to deliver his invention.
"There was always the comment that I'd be pulled over for transporting weapons of mass destruction," Bushroe said.
Unfortunately, the death ray was damaged in shipping and had to be cobbled together before filming began, Bushroe said.
Although Bushroe successfully heated a piece of wood during his test run in his backyard, he was unable to repair the damaged death-ray in time to ignite the wooden boat during filming.
The legend of Archimedes and the mirrors purportedly took place during the Punic wars, when Rome was under attack from the armies of Hannibal, said Alison Futrell, associate professor of history.
During this time, many Roman cities, including Syracuse, seceded and joined the Hannibal's side. This angered the Romans, who aimed to reclaim their former cities, Futrell said.
"When the Romans brought these cities back into the fold, they treated them very badly because they believed they had been betrayed by friends," Futrell said.
Whether or not the mirror legend is true, Syracuse - located in modern-day Sicily - had formidable defenses ranging from a giant catapult to a wooden claw that sank invading ships, Futrell said.
While Bushroe has no plans to build a second, more effective death ray, the experience convinced him that building a workable machine more than 2,000 years ago was possible.
"I still think it would be possible with 200 B.C. technology, but it would be extremely difficult," Bushroe said.
Bushroe was pleased to be a MythBuster, even if it was for only one show.
"To me, it would be one of the best possible jobs to do," he said.
Bushroe has since written a book chronicling his experiences titled, "I was a Myth Buster for Four Days." The book is available for purchase at www.lulu.com.