The thing about Myth Busters is that sometimes they flub things, partially for time constraints. For instance, I saw one this weekend about if it was possible to suffocate on your own gas. Most of the build up made sense... then came the way they calculated it.
1) They took each part of the gas as a totally independent variable, they never added up the individual components (which would have shortened the time in question, even if only a little bit). One of the components only took 36 hours to reach the saturation point... which brings up the oddity that 2) they did each calculation based on the room somehow being vented to normal air quality everyday. The story involves a poorly ventilated room... which means this didn't take one day to occur. 3) They made all the calculations based on men weighing far less than the man in the story, ones in better health with diets no where near as bad. 4) They worked on the assumption that, if the air quality was bad enough to cause issues the guy would have woken up on time... when death by carbon monoxide makes you fall asleep and just not wake up. 5) They never took into account that it was hot which for fat people especially means your not moving if you can help it. Which is worse because they took the calculations of the volume and frequency of flatulation based on sitting in a tub of cold water. This is the opposite of the thermal conditions that will to induce gas and the conditions in the story... so their starting point is flawed. All in all the single worse 'busting' of a myth I've seen them do.
In the case I've only heard of, these were anchored ships getting set on fire. Then again giving their opponents super powers to explain why the siege is taking so long. Either way it means that people have wanted lasers for well over a millennium. I can't remember seeing either episode it question so I can't be more specific on if I believe them or not.
Doesn't change the over all point that the Roman era had a lot of what is considered modern technology floating around. Note I mentioned the Romans doing successful eye surgery.... I'll take your point on time distorting things, but it doesn't really matter for my over all point on technological advancement speed. Not to mention it proves how old the phenomenon of people taking a fictional idea and tring to make it work advancing technology from earlier.
1) They took each part of the gas as a totally independent variable, they never added up the individual components (which would have shortened the time in question, even if only a little bit). One of the components only took 36 hours to reach the saturation point... which brings up the oddity that 2) they did each calculation based on the room somehow being vented to normal air quality everyday. The story involves a poorly ventilated room... which means this didn't take one day to occur. 3) They made all the calculations based on men weighing far less than the man in the story, ones in better health with diets no where near as bad. 4) They worked on the assumption that, if the air quality was bad enough to cause issues the guy would have woken up on time... when death by carbon monoxide makes you fall asleep and just not wake up. 5) They never took into account that it was hot which for fat people especially means your not moving if you can help it. Which is worse because they took the calculations of the volume and frequency of flatulation based on sitting in a tub of cold water. This is the opposite of the thermal conditions that will to induce gas and the conditions in the story... so their starting point is flawed. All in all the single worse 'busting' of a myth I've seen them do.
In the case I've only heard of, these were anchored ships getting set on fire. Then again giving their opponents super powers to explain why the siege is taking so long. Either way it means that people have wanted lasers for well over a millennium. I can't remember seeing either episode it question so I can't be more specific on if I believe them or not.
Doesn't change the over all point that the Roman era had a lot of what is considered modern technology floating around. Note I mentioned the Romans doing successful eye surgery.... I'll take your point on time distorting things, but it doesn't really matter for my over all point on technological advancement speed. Not to mention it proves how old the phenomenon of people taking a fictional idea and tring to make it work advancing technology from earlier.