I may be a little on the geek side, but some guys have a lot of extra time on their hands.
Maybe we can make some good targeting suggestions for The Solar Death Ray (http://www.solardeathray.com/)
Hey, also check out Dean's Benchtop (http://www2.et.byu.edu/%7Ewheeler/benchtop/balloon.php) for water rocketry fun.
Better entertainment through science!
Post Edited (03-25-05 12:41)
As geeky as that is, I still find it pretty cool. In fact, I need one of those but on a bigger scale.
I'd be amazed if that thing could produce a beam that was 5 or 6 degrees warmer than ambient air temperature.
Like Julia Louis Dreyfus as Weather Woman? I seem to recall having seen a hot dog cooked with something like that. I always thought they should have something like that on life rafts for distilling water.
Nerd scenario: Take it to the moon, see how it works with no atmosphere.
A solar death ray is not new. Archimedes is believed to have used one against the Roman fleet at the Siege of Syracuse.
And when today's scientists looked into it. They thought he could have created one , using metal shields polished to a high sheen, then using the shields to focus the light of the sun onto one particular point and setting the Roman fleet on fire. Much like a magnifying glass today can be used to concentrate the light of the sun, so it can set fire to something.
Yeah, they built one of those on Mythbusters to see if that Syracuse story could be true or not. They used modern mirrors and their reflector was at least 20 feet across.
Here's a picture: http://dsc.discovery.com/fansites/mythbusters/photogalleries/season_02/season_02.html
Turns out that one of the guys could stand right in the beam and it wasn't even all that uncomfortable. They shined it on the side of a boat for about half an hour and some of the resin between the boards eventually started to get soft.
That's why I don't think that little one would do much. :)
This site has pictures of things blackening and burning, and they don't look fake. Or did you miss that?
Looking at the device, I do think it would concentrate quite a lot of light. The difference with the one on Myth Busters, if they were trying to test the Archimedes story, was probably that they were trying to focus the light at a distance. Hard to tell from the pictures, but the shallow angle of their mirrors suggests a focal point at some distance, which would be a fair test of the story.
This solar death ray is not set up as a death ray, but more as a satellite dish, concentrating the light on a focal point right in front of it, which I think would facilitate a tighter focus.
This is no different than the setup for solar energy collectors that manage to generate enough steam to drive turbines.
Think about it. If light from a magnifying glass three inches wide can roast an ant when concentrated on an area maybe 3/16" wide, then a device 60-odd inches across that can focus sunlight onto a spot two inches wide or less is going to have the same effect. It's not the size of the device, it's the concentration of light. Flat mirrors do limit the ability to focus, compared to a lens, of course.
If the one on Myth Busters failed to work, it was likely due to a flaw in its own design, or in the way it was used. The principles behind it are sound.
Post Edited (03-27-05 09:51)