A seriously WTF about ancient Romans using EM tech.

[LanghamP]

https://www.ancient-origins.net/news-science-space/roman-technology-0011857

I just don't know about this article, I almost feel like it's a joke, but ever so slightly plausible if the author mixed up terms.

A team of civil engineers in France have revealed that the Romans had ancient technology for building structures that acted like modern-day electromagnetic cloaking devices. The pattern of foundations in some major Roman monuments, like the Colosseum, provided protection against earthquakes by bending seismic waves around them.

The Romans used architectural features in their constructions which acted like ‘metamaterials’, artificial structures that can manipulate electromagnetic or sound waves. For example, surrounding a building with a lattice of holes or solid objects embedded in the soil can have the effect of diverting seismic wavesaround the monument, effectively creating a seismic ‘invisibility cloak’.

So I think the author mixed up sound versus electromagnetic waves?

[meepmeepmayer]

1 hour ago, LanghamP said:

So I think the author mixed up sound versus electromagnetic waves?

Nah. Wave behavior is wave behavior.

Here's a much better overview of the findings: https://arstechnica.com/science/2019/05/study-says-ancient-romans-may-have-built-invisibility-cloaks-into-structures/

The summary is:

A certain positioning of materials will shield a location from wave effects and effectively divert the waves around it. If you use that on light waves, the light will "bend around something" and make that something "invisible" (in certain limited wavelengths). If you use that on seismic waves, there's a spot protected from earthquakes. That's what the foundational pillars of the colloseum may or may not do in case of earthquake, they just noticed the analogy in positioning of materials.

Cool but probably just a coincidence. Or maybe it is a construction technique and now we know why it works (the Romans surely didn't).