The Solar Death Ray 496
Ant writes the "Solar Death Ray is made of 112 mirrors mounted on a platform 4 feet wide and 6 feet tall. Each mirror is a square roughly 3.5 inches on edge. All these mirrors focus the sun to a single spot 5 feet, 6 inches from the mirror platform. A wooden fork extends from the mirror base to the area near the focus and serves as a mounting point for Solar Death Ray targets. The mirror platform is mounted to the support frame on a pivot that allows the platform to be angled. The whole system is mounted on a set of wheels. The goal of the Web site was to show the results of the targeted items when the solar death ray was used."
I've already seen it (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Myth Busters as well ... (Score:3, Interesting)
Myth Busters tried this one too to duplicate something Pythagoras (I think) was supposed to have done.
Archimedes. You're talking about using mirrors to set fire to the sails of attacking ships, right?
the website is subtitled (Score:5, Funny)
Re:the website is subtitled (Score:5, Funny)
Re:the website is subtitled (Score:5, Funny)
Re:the website is subtitled (Score:3, Funny)
Re:the website is subtitled (Score:5, Funny)
Re:the website is subtitled (Score:2)
Just be happy you did not lose your gonads playing with your chemistry set.
Solar Death Ray (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Solar Death Ray (Score:5, Insightful)
I hate to be the one to point this out, but um. They haven't actually killed anything. This more accurately should be called a Solar Plastic-Melting Ray.
No, he did kill some something: Army men [solardeathray.com]. Okay, maybe they are made of plastic, but they're still men.
Re:Solar Death Ray (Score:5, Funny)
1 killowatt "deathray" (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Solar Death Ray (Score:5, Funny)
"Behold the terrible power of the SUN! Hold still, please!"
Re:the website is subtitled (Score:5, Funny)
Slashdot, we have a winner.
Don't /. the site (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Don't /. the site (Score:2)
The Coralized site is even slower than the original site?!
Re:Don't /. the site (Score:3, Informative)
Metaslashdotting... (Score:3, Funny)
The requested URL could not be retrieved
While trying to retrieve the URL: http://www.solardeathray.com.nyud.net:8090/
The following error was encountered:
* Access Denied.
Access control configuration prevents your request from being allowed at this time. Please contact your service provider if you feel this is incorrect.
Re:Don't /. the site (Score:3, Funny)
Heh (Score:5, Funny)
Solar Death Ray Guy's next News entry should be fun.
Re:Heh (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Heh (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Heh (Score:5, Funny)
"Slashdot Death Ray is made of tens of thousands of geeks, most mounted on platforms approximately one to two feet high, and approximately 18 inches on each edge. Each geek focuses HTTP requests to a single web server at a distance ranging from tens to thousands of miles away. A web site is kept visible at all times on the geeks' computers and serves as mounting point for the URL of Slashdot Death Ray targets. The whole system is mounted on a large rock sphere. The goal of this summary is to show the results of the targeted website when the Slashdot Death Ray is used."
Re:Heh (Score:5, Funny)
Or so we'd like to think.
Wierd! Science? (Score:5, Funny)
Ultimate Geek Toy (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Ultimate Geek Toy (Score:5, Informative)
No, not true (Score:4, Insightful)
You'd be right if there were no atmosphere.
Re:Ultimate Geek Toy (Score:3, Funny)
www.solarroast.com
The myth is dead! Long live the myth! (Score:5, Informative)
Not so tiny (Score:5, Interesting)
--
Want a free iPod? [freeipods.com]
Or try a free Nintendo DS, GC, PS2, Xbox. [freegamingsystems.com] (you only need 4 referrals)
Wired article as proof [wired.com]
Re:Not so tiny (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Not so tiny (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Not so tiny (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Not so tiny (Score:5, Interesting)
They certainly knew geometry and optics. What they didn't know was glass. Crystal lenses have been discovered all over the Mediterranean.
Discovering how a parabolic array (lots of flat mirrors lined up along the curve of a parabola) focuses light is something that Archimedes could have confirmed - all it takes is an inquistive mind and observation. Getting a few hundred soldiers to position shields correctly would have been fairly trivial.
Why wouldn't it have become a popular weapon? It's not reliable enough. You need to have lots of mirrors, room to set them up in a parabolic curve, lots of bright sunlight, and a relatively slow moving target that will cross a known point at the right time. It's not easy but it would be possible.
Consider that triremes didn't usually sail at night - an invading fleet might well have pulled up not far from the harbor for the night, with intent to sail in an hour or two after dawn.
See:
http://www.mlahanas.de/Greeks/Mirrors.htm
http
And google for "ancient greek lens"
Re:Not so tiny (Score:5, Insightful)
A parabolic array only matters when you are trying to focus a signal. The Greeks were only interested in energy, and had no concern for phases. Therefore they don't need anything other than clear line of sight to the target for everyone. Each person just has to figure out which of the (many) bright spots is the one they control, and keep that more or less on the target. So long as the average energy reaching the target spot is enough it doesn't matter if many are not on target at any particular moment.
Re:Not so tiny (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Not so tiny (Score:3, Insightful)
Ancient Greece isn't my specialty -- that would be Egypt -- but I know that by the time the Greeks were trading with the Egyptians, blown glass artifacts start showing up, initially as imports, and later as domestic products. The Egyptians had been making cast-glass jewelry for some time before that. I rather doubt they knew how to make optical-grade glass, though. That
Re:The myth is dead! Long live the myth! (Score:5, Informative)
Re:The myth is dead! Long live the myth! (Score:5, Insightful)
This is a perfect example. Mythbusters claims to have "busted" the solar death ray myth, yet the guys in this article were successful in lighting shop rags, pairs of old jeans, boardgames, etc on fire, and have pictures to prove it.
Re:The myth is dead! Long live the myth! (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:The myth is dead! Long live the myth! (Score:4, Funny)
Um... its a TV show. (Score:3, Insightful)
Its entertainment, not science. Don't watch it to learn anything about the reality of the "myths", watch it because its freakin' hot to see Kari bound up in the water torture episode.
(Oops, did I just say too much?)
Re:The myth is dead! Long live the myth! (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:The myth is dead! Long live the myth! (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:The myth is dead! Long live the myth! (Score:3, Insightful)
That depends greatly on the era and the shield, flat ones are not unheard of. Typically the concave side (of a curved shield) is where the handles are located, so it's unlikel
Re:The myth is dead! Long live the myth! (Score:3, Insightful)
If you want to burn a ship that's several hundred meters away with a reflection from the sun, it doesn't matter very much whether the mirrors have exactly the right curvature or are flat. Even a perfect curved mirror would create a perfect image of the sun the diameter of which depends on the distance between the mirror and the image. At
Re:The myth is dead! Long live the myth! (Score:4, Funny)
Re:The myth is dead! Long live the myth! (Score:5, Informative)
They DID show that plants that are exposed to sound grow better, and ones that are exposed to death metal grew the best.
Finally,... (Score:3, Funny)
From the Website (Score:5, Funny)
Dantooine. I mean Alderan. I don't understand the question.
Re:From the Website (Score:5, Funny)
Stirling Engine (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Stirling Engine (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Stirling Engine (Score:3, Interesting)
Here you go. [blogspot.com]
Solar Death Ray (Score:2)
This toy kinda reminds me of what I used to do as a kid with a magnifying glass. It was an easy way to set leaves on fire, among other things...
The Alan Parsons Project (Score:5, Funny)
Yeah, but can you mount it on the head of a friggin shark?
Who needs a solar death ray... (Score:5, Funny)
Warning! (Score:5, Funny)
Beware of the Slashdot death ray! (Score:2)
The slashdot is bright. Don't look at the slashdot or you will damage your eyes. Anything that focuses the slashdot will only make it more dangerous. The Slashdot.org is dangerous. Don't build one.
I'm surprised I haven't burnt or blinded myself yet. The fumes from molten trolls can't be good either. Don't play with flames.
(And he thinks that 120,000 pageviews is a lot...)
Ha! You call that a solar death ray? (Score:5, Interesting)
I've observed there. Because it is radio astronomy, we could observe before sunset and after sunrise, but for some reason we had strict instructions to never let the sun fall on the dish. (That includes the back, but that was to do with thermal distortion of the dish, rather than frying the focus.)
I also used my HP48SX calculator (running a terminal emulator) to command the telescope to slew. Because of this, I claim the CSO as world's the largest and most expensive peripheral for a pocket calculator.
Re:Ha! You call that a solar death ray? (Score:4, Funny)
You are such a nerd. We will have to make you king of the winter carnival.
10 metres of high-precision parabolic polished aluminium
Why aluminum? Is it the most reflective substance on earth?
we had strict instructions to never let the sun fall on the dish
No matter where you point it, you are pointing it somewhere.
And make sure to not leave it pointing in the direction of the only all-black fraternity house on campus. That could start up those nasty black versus nerd wars again. Instead, point it at the Sigma Chi house, those bastards are always burning down their own house... nobody will suspect anything.
Re:Ha! You call that a solar death ray? (Score:3, Informative)
its been awhile, so i forget the exact formula, but basically your surface can be as rough as some fraction of the wavelength you're trying to focus. Hence, wide waves can use dirty and/or rough surfaces (such as arecibo, which is just a hole in the ground and some perforated aluminum panels) and still work just fine, even when soiled as a huge bowl in the ground is bound to become.
Re:Ha! You call that a solar death ray? (Score:5, Funny)
You forgot libstdcpp.
Re:Ha! You call that a solar death ray? (Score:3, Interesting)
Under perfect conditions, you should be able to reach the surface temperature of the sun - about 5600 C. This will be reduced by atmospheric absorption, imperfect reflectivity of your mirrors, etc.
Re:Ha! You call that a solar death ray? (Score:3, Funny)
> I surrender.
Wait a minute; isn't this backwards?
hawk
Larry Niven strikes again; Ringworld sunflowers. (Score:4, Interesting)
Blog is hilarious! (Score:2)
Given that it's winter in Seattle, it might be
a while [before I can test this out]. I should have built a rain-powered death ray or a death ray
powered by granola.
Feh, Kid's stuff (Score:5, Interesting)
The parabolic reflector gaves at the focal point a maximum flux of 1000 W/cm2. The experimentations takes place at the focal zone (18 m in front of the paraboloid. The range of available temperature is from 800 to 2500 C (the maximum reachable temperature is 3800 C) for a maximum thermal power of 1000 kW.
(Did someone just say holy fucking shit?)
Picture of the Odeillo Solar Furnace [latrobe.edu.au]
The Tetris Disk (Score:5, Insightful)
Your museum sucks. (Score:4, Informative)
Tetris the Classic PC Puzzle Video Game 5.25" 3.5" [ebay.com]
I'd like to see... (Score:4, Funny)
The website death ray (Score:4, Funny)
Kindergarten Death Squad!!! (Score:5, Funny)
1. Give each kid their own shiny little mirror with a post-it note stuck on it to block the shiny part
2. One at a time, have them remove the post-it, aim their mirror to reflect the sun upon some point, then re-post-it.
3. Once everyone is aimed (30 kids or so), have them all remove their post-its at once, instantly creating a plasma-hot ball of fire at the point of focus, incinerating your enemies with the might of a kindergarten class.
Has anyone else had this idea too, or am I the only weirdo around here?
Re:Kindergarten Death Squad!!! (Score:4, Funny)
Just make sure to weed out those ADD kids. Nothing is worse than being disentigrated by your own Kindergarden Solar Death Ray Squad(TM) just because one wants to play with a bug or something.
Re:Kindergarten Death Squad!!! (Score:3, Interesting)
What do you expect me to do, squeal? (Score:3, Funny)
Definitely not new (Score:5, Interesting)
One amusing side note is that Frank Gehry's popular postmodern buildings [wikipedia.org] have been noted to act as solar collectors, effectively frying people [boingboing.net] passing by on the sidewalk.
I don't think so! (Score:3, Funny)
There is no way that would fit on the head of a dolphin.
So what use is it to me?
REAL Solar Death Ray (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:MythBusters? (Score:2)
It sounds like something David Letterman would do.
Re:MythBusters? (Score:3, Interesting)
The claim was that Archimedes thought up having 1000+ soldiers use their reflective bronze shields to shine sunlight on enemy ships. Thus igniting and incinerating them.
They tried this on MythBusters and it didn't work. But they don't always do a perfect job on that show, and since armies were huge back in the day....I wouldn't be surprized if it worked.
Re:MythBusters? (Score:5, Interesting)
How about blinding the sailors on board, who then run around in a panic and knock over the pot of charcoals used for igniting the flaming arrows? Carcoals ignite the ship's deck instead, or someone's clothes, the fire spreads, voila. No more battleship.
Re:Magnification (Score:3, Informative)
Anyway, it's been done before:
http://www-personal.umich.edu/~bclee/len
Gluttonous REAL GENIUS plug... (Score:2)
Isn't that how they got all that pop corn popping?
Re:Gluttonous REAL GENIUS plug... (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Magnification (Score:5, Informative)
This is focused light via reflection, not refraction as would come from a magnifying glass or lense.
This contraption probably wouldn't gain much by using a lense. Extra square footage of mirrors would increase it's delicious fry-it power though....
Re:Magnification (Score:2)
Re:Magnification (Score:3, Informative)
Magnification does nothing (Score:5, Informative)
Proof: Take a microscope and set it to 500X. Point the objective at the sun. Do you death rays spewing from the eyepiece? (Answer: no). To find out why, read the first paragraph or ask someone that *really* knows. (Hopefully someone that took some optics (physics) or astronomy)
Re:Magnification does nothing (Score:3, Interesting)
Take a microscope and set it to 500X. Point the objective at the sun. Do you death rays spewing from the eyepiece? (Answer: no).
A while back I was at an observatory [cmnh.org] and the guy in charge said never to point a telescope at the sun. To demonstrate, he turned the telescope (10.5" refractor) toward the sun. We could see a beam of bright light coming out the eyepiece. He put a piece of paper in the middle of the light and it ignited into flames almost instantly.
Yes, telescopes and microscopes are not the sam
Re:Magnification does nothing (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Magnification does nothing (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Magnification does nothing (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Magnification does nothing (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Magnification does nothing (Score:3, Funny)
(stubs out cigarette)
(puts condom over telescope)
(puts filter lense on penis)
there, all better
waitaminute...
Re:Solar panels? (Score:3, Informative)
God yes. (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Myth Busted! (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Take it to the Nth Degree! (Score:3, Informative)
http://www.wentworth.nsw.gov.au/solartower/faq.
It doesn't use mirrors, but a covered substrate which captures the hot air (greenhouse effect), and funnels it into a large central tower.
The hot air (no water/steam required in this design) then moves the turbines.
Looks pretty sweet.