TPO 30

In this set of materials, the reading passage and the listening section discuss the possibility of a mirror as a weapon that the Greek people used for defending themselves. Although the reading passage provides three theories about the impossibility of using it, the speaker refutes these ideas for several reasons, which I will describe in this report.

First, the passage points out that Greek people would not have enough knowledge and technology to make a flat and parabolic mirror with a single sheet. The lecturer, in contrast, rejects this by claiming that Greek people did not need to make a mirror with a single sheet of copper. The mirror had been made by several small pieces of cooper that assembly to each other. So they would make a mirror with a parabolic curve.

Furthermore, the passage states that making fire by a mirror need to the ships did not move, and the light had to focus for 10 minutes, but they did not stay. However, the professor argues that wood was not the only materials which need for making a fire. Other materials, such as a sticky substance between a waterproof and wood called a pitch used for making a fire. Romans used the pitch in their ships to waterproof some part, and this material could set on fire easily by a burning mirror.

Finally, although the reading passage says that burning mirror did not have many advantages over flaming arrows, so Greek people would not be willing to use them, the speaker disagrees by mentioning that Romans were familiar with flaming arrows, and they could put off the fire immediately. On the other hand, they could not see the rays of a burning mirror, and mysteriously, a fire occurs on their ships. Therefore the burning mirror was a surprising and effective weapon.