Teenage Mad Scientist Creates Solar Death Ray

[TRR]

Simple magnifying lenses are more effective and less of a hassle.

That is not true, for the same reason no one builds refracting telescopes anymore.
His "mirror" has a diameter of about 1m
this would collect the same amount of light as a magnifying glass 1m wide
largest refracting telescope in use diameter ~1m
So his 5000 little mirrors equates to a massive piece of perfectly formed glass
also the refractor would have to be reletively close perpendicular to the sun, so you couldn't aim it

 

[Hoiguyyami]

You know, the Nazis actually tried to make a giant one of these in space during WW2. They didn't have enough resources, but they worked out how big it would have to be to destroy cities, etc. It was part of their series of Wunderwaffen.

Seriously.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun_gun

 

[Xero Scythe]

It would be great- if Archimedes hadn't done the same exact thing against the Romans nearly 2,000 years ago.

 

[Silversheath]

5,800 mirrors = waaay too much time on his hands

Why didn't he make something intresting, like a freezing ray?

 

[ShadowsofHope]

Bah, that's nothing!

Oh.. shit.

So, ehm, where do we sign the dotted line? I'd like a death ray immunity pact, thank you very much. <_<

 

[Dango]

Also, 5000 suns? Bit of an exageration there, surely.

Well he posted the math in the description of the video to prove it, not that I can understand any of it.

 

[Baldry]

Wonder what his parents thought? "Hey dad just off out back to build a death ray" "Okay, don't practice on the shed" "damn it"

 

[Wicky_42]

Yeah, I'm calling fake on this.

Hilariously over the top fake.

Hah hah, oh man, what about this do you think is fake? It's more impressive that this kid had the dedication to glue down 5,800 little mirrors than to just buy a stainless-steel parabolic dish and give it a good polish XD

I like that he couldn't think of any practical uses for it - well, first would have been to drastically reduce his water heating bill. That basically is the essential component of any solar thermal powerplant - though complications start to arise once you're focussing more than 1 at the same point and at a longer distance...

 

[Wicky_42]

Also, 5000 suns? Bit of an exageration there, surely.

That'll be 5000 times the solar energy per area than would have otherwise been received, rather than the power of 5000 stars-worth of nuclear fusion...

 

[Thorvan]

In theory, you could use this as a weapon, at least defensively; set up a bunch of them with their focal points covering your entrances, positioned so that you need to walk through it to shoot them down.

 

[mitchalin7]

an eco friendly death ray... epic

 

[Wicky_42]

Oh, on a side note:

Artist Anish Kapoor is kinda ahead of this kid with the impressive Sky mirror - this beast had to be re-aimed cos it kept frying pigeons sat on the roof! The only thing holding this thing back from world domination is the English weather...

 

[PxDn Ninja]

Didn't the Mythbusters prove this was impossible?

Not exactly. They proved that Achemedies wouldn't have been able to make one on the scale of the legends that say he did, and that it wouldn't be a viable way of bringing down a ship. The science is sound, but just not at a weaponized level.

 

[Person342]

5000 suns is a bit over the top, but still, its cool.

I think they mean 5000 times the intensity of the suns rays on earth. If it was that strong it would be disintergrating things left right and centre and i think the military would have devised something similar way back.

 

[Jack Macaque]

Stay in school kids...cool though

 

[Souplex]

He made his in atmosphere? Doesn't he know how much sunlight the atmosphere blocks out?

 

[Gudrests]

I thought mythbusters busted this shit?!

Not much of a weapon though if the post where the light is concentrated is only a foot or two away from the device.

if the angle changed ( and the size ) the range could probally be increased by quite a bit....but then aiming would be hard as hell

 

[BrownGaijin]

Um... Couldn't you do the same thing with a magnifying glass?

 

[Darkauthor81]

Didn't the Mythbusters prove this was impossible?

NO. They proved that Archimedes couldn't use the technology available to him at that time to set ships on fire at a distance. THIS is proven and widely used technology.

This is how it works. Each mirror is angled so that they all reflect light onto the same spot. For each mirror you increase the amount of sun hitting that point by x1. So this rig focuses 5000x the earth's sun onto a single point.

Why this can't be used as a weapon is because if you move a foot in any direction you move out of the rig's focus.

They currently employ this same technology in various solar power plants. One version has dozens of large mirrors focusing the sun onto a huge black cylinder which heats the water inside the cylinder to over a thousand degrees. The water turns to vapor and pushes a turbine under the cylinder generating electricity. The steam is then pushed underground where it cools and turns back into water and flows back up into the cylinder to start the process all over again.

Another version is to take a rig almost exactly like this one and put a high yield solar panel in front of it. Commercial solar panels are low yield and relatively cheap. High yield ones are developed by the military and are massively expensive. Using a rig like this, you can focus a MASSIVE amount of sun onto a very small (about 1 inch) square of high yield solar panel. This results in a rig that produces 5 times more electricity that a low yield solar panel of the same size.

 

[Hithlain]

How did the pliers/his fingers not burn off if it really was that hot?