TPO 30 Integrated Task: Roman's Naval Attack

TPO 30 integrated Task:
The reading passage discusses the validity of the defensive methodology used by Greek during the Roman’s navy attack to the port city of syracuse 2200 years ago. It is illustrated in the reading that the Greeks could not have been using an inventive weapon called ''Burning mirror'' which was a clear surface of cooper to direct the sun's rays towards Roman's ships. In order to question the tale, three different evidence have been provided by the author which the lecturer finds all reasons false and provide solid proofs for each of them.

First, the professor claims that, in order to make the mirror of that size, they could have used a dozens of separated cooper plates and stick them to each other to make a coherent mirror, according to him the Greek mathematicians were able to precisely direct the small pieces of coopers in a way that could guide the sun's rays toward a specific object in far distances. However, the author in the reading passage argues that the required knowledge was not available to fabricate a large sheet of cooper with such features back then. …show more content…
As the speaker mentions, Romans had used a fireable/keen to fire material called ''pitch'' in order to fill the void spaces between woods to make the outer layer conserved from water. He illustrates that pitch is able to catch fire by mirror very quickly in just a few seconds and as a result, the fire will be spread to the woods and then the whole ship will be on fire. In contrast, the reading states that the burning mirror is not practical in a way to be able to set the ships on fire since ships are made by woods and are far away from the