Joe Frickin' Friday Posted February 10, 2011 Share Posted February 10, 2011 Ever played outside with a magnifying glass on a sunny day when you were a kid? Yeah, me too. Fun to focus the sunlight on a tiny spot and incinerate things. You can of course do the same thing with mirrors. In fact, the Olympic flame is lit this way. Likewise, solar furnaces do it on a very large scale to generate electrical power (or just really high temperatures) from sunlight. If you scale that down just a tad, you can do the same thing in your backyard, like this guy: As he demonstrates, a satellite TV antenna (parabolic dish) lined with 5000+ mirror segments results in a pretty kickass backyard solar furnace. Not only does wood catch fire pretty quick, but he's melting steel, turning dirt into lava, and burning holes in concrete. Wow. Link to comment
beemerboy Posted February 10, 2011 Share Posted February 10, 2011 Do ya think a portable unit could be made? Hmmm, I'm wondering if I could find a handle bar mount for it...... Link to comment
Nice n Easy Rider Posted February 10, 2011 Share Posted February 10, 2011 Could do some serious marshmallow toasting with one of those. Link to comment
g_frey Posted February 10, 2011 Share Posted February 10, 2011 Having helped with about 20 of these I would like to point out that yes it works but to say it has the power of some multiple of suns is misleading. From the video it burns wood, that is about 460 degrees farenheit. I would like to see it melt steel in person before I would believe it. Cynical but I have seen reflectors that are 5 or 6 feet in diameter that would not melt steel. Link to comment
RonStewart Posted February 10, 2011 Share Posted February 10, 2011 Different, I know, but I have seen a 12-inch lens concentrate sunlight to melt aluminum. 1220 F or 660 C. It was a slug of about an inch cubed, but the molten part was maybe 1/10 of an inch cubed (1/1000 cubic inch). Summer of 77, Calgary Planetarium. I was 14. Same day I saw Star Wars for the first time. And it must have made as big an impression on me as the movie. Link to comment
jb11GSA Posted February 10, 2011 Share Posted February 10, 2011 Very cool - would be nice if that kid turned it into something positive and made some $$$. Link to comment
Gary in Aus Posted February 11, 2011 Share Posted February 11, 2011 May have worked for Archimedes. If it didn't actually set fire to the ships I am confident having thousands of shields reflecting sun at you would have dampened the enthusiasm of some! Link to comment
Matts_12GS Posted February 11, 2011 Share Posted February 11, 2011 I like too. Build me one of those and set up some storage batteries/inverters for things around the homestead... I like it! Link to comment
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