Melting Steel with Sunlight! (w/ Video)

This is pretty awesome. This video shows the extreme temperatures that can be reached by no more than two things mirrors and sunlight. Enjoy

YouTube Link

You know that was an awesome video showing the sun melting steal, The thing I'm thrown off by is, if they have a machine made of mirrors that can produce that much heat, and heat is just merely energy, have they not found a way to harness the energy for conventional use, or is it merely the fact it would put out too many businesses?

edit to add: 1st!!

[edit on 12-10-2009 by clever024]

reply to post by clever024

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Yeah that's a good point. Especially having the abillity to produce heat and/or energy that can melt steel, I am suprised they have not found a way to supress and therefor retain that energy.

reply to post by Scooby Doo

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en.wikipedia.org...

I know someone working on a new project in the desert southwest where they use molten salt to store energy collected during the day. It uses mirrors to concentrate the energy like what the video shows but on a larger scale.

That was wild! Thanks for posting that. I can't wait to show it to people.

So uhhh, why don't they use it to heat water.... Which makes steam... which turns a turbine..... which generates electricity?

Screw solar panels, this would work better!

[edit on 12-10-2009 by DaMod]

That is a Cosmic Energy reflector, not.
But there is a cosmic energy reflector.

Comment Pending

We tell all our secrets.

It will as long as the net efficiency of using steam is higher than that of direct panels. When panels cross a certain threshold, then there won't be any justification.

Turbine machinery is certainly more mechanically complicated as well.

Imagine that baby hanging on the under side of a "Death Satellite" ? frying you instantly.

reply to post by DaMod

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Or better yet, heat ocean salt water into steam, and then collect the steam, and then bottle it and drink it.

....droughts.....

So Uhh they do and have been for years

Check out some of these babies especially the pic of the one in spain seville:

Solar Tower Panels

Kind Regards

Eld

Thats not a silly idea at all. We have so many resources with great potential, and we never see them being used.

That is the most popular form of solar energy. Most solar plants work in this way. And yes, it's way awesome.

thats awesome never seen it used ike this before

I am questioning how legit this video is since Mythbusters did an episode on this exact thing. If I remember correctly they said it would take an impossibly big mirror dish to melt things like in that video. Starting fire yes, but to melt metal like that? I dunno.
Anyways go google "mythbusters ancient death ray" and it will bring up a bunch of results. It's one of their early episodes so who knows by now someone could have refined the idea to a working model like in that video.

reply to post by darklife

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mythbusters couldn't get a hundreds of pounds of thermite to melt through a truck, but brainiacs melted through 4 inches(two on top, two on the bottom) thick of steel safe, plus a pile of coins in the safe with a small bucket of thermite.
i think the mythbusters are overrated, and perhaps, something more sinister: DISINFO ARTISTS!!!
or maybe the english are just better at science.



anyone fancy a nice cuppa?

[edit on 13-10-2009 by billybob]

The system is over two thousand years old, attributed to Archimedes
(around 215 BC), who is said to have inflamed Roman battleships that
attacked besieged Syrakus, with an array of polished shields focussed
on the sails.
See www.mlahanas.de...

The authenticity of the Burning Mirrors of Archimedes have for centuries
been a topic of controversy.

The efficiency of a multitude of mirrors focussed on sails or metals has
been proven. One of those researchers has described his experiments
in 1747 in his "Memoires de Paris".
He melted tin at a distance of 20 feet with 45 plane mirrors 6x8 inches,
silver with 117 of them that also heated iron red.
He inflamed wood at 200 feet, melted tin at 150, lead at 130, silver at 60
feet, increasing the number of mirrors.
In that time many mirrors up to 3 1/2m diameter were produced for
professional melting.
You still can see one of 3 feet diameter with a focus of 30" in the Royal
Cabinet of Paris, which was able to even vitrify within seconds the densest
metals along with the earth, the stones, and the pan.
A German school test in 2002 with 500 pupils, holding concave mirrors of 45x45cm each within a 108° angle, set a sail at a distance of 50 m on fire, although the Sycilian sun is by far hotter.

Foreign aid is already sending sun-reflecting cooking dishes to the Third
World.

Imagine if we could utalize this power all around us. www.youtube.com...

reply to post by darklife

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The problem with Mythbusters is that they were trying to light something on fire that was several feet away (more than 10 feet). They couldn't get it to work because it would require the ability to change the focus of the beam on the fly. Also, because of the atmosphere, the intensity of the beam would decrease with distance. They also weren't allowed to use modern mirrors, they had to use polished metal.

In the O.P.'s video, they have a short and fixed distance that never changes. This means they can focus the beam with precision. They also had the technology to change the focus if they wanted (Mythbusters didn't).

Mythbusters didn't bust the death ray Myth, because it IS possible to melt things with the Sun. What they DID bust was someone having this tool on their boat back in the days when they didn't even have modern mirrors, they only had polished metal plates.





[edit on 13-10-2009 by ALLis0NE]

This is absolutely true.

I interviewed with the company. Their name is Ausra. After Australia and Ra, the Eygptian god of sun.

Myth busters used one concave mirror if I recollect. This principle uses thousands of mirrors focused on one point. Like a magnifying glass that would start fires or burn ants.. same thing. It works like a nuclear reactor where the sun is focused and creates steam. The steam is dried and drives turbines. It is condensed and the cycle starts over again.