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This building in London can melt cars or set fires in other buildings: http://www.nbcnews.com/science/how-london-skyscraper-can-melt-cars-set-buildings-fire-8C1

This building in London can melt cars or set fires in other buildings: http://www.nbcnews.com/science/how-london-skyscraper-can-melt-cars-set-buildings-fire-8C11069092 http://www.nbcnews.com/science/how-london-skyscraper-can-mel...

vanderZwan 9y ago
Well, melt the paint on cars. I suspect that the amount of energy required to melt an entire car would be quite a lot more than even a skyscraper worth of surface area could gather from the sun. > This isn't the first time Viñoly's architecture has raised eyebrows as well as temperatures: His Vdara Hotel in Las Vegas has been criticized for directing sunbeams onto the swimming pool deck that are hot enough to melt plastic and singe people's hair. The hotspot became known as the "Vdara death ray." Based on this I'm inclined to believe Viñoly fits the negative "rockstar architect" stereotype. I mean, making that mistake once is one thing, but then doing it again?
- captainmuon 9y ago
  > I suspect that the amount of energy required to melt an entire car would be quite a lot more than even a skyscraper worth of surface area could gather from the sun. Actually, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_furnace https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_furnace ... The furnace in Odeillo, France can reach up to 3500 °C, and it's cross section is just about 50x50 meters. Of course, your typical skyscraper won't create those temperatures accidentially, but if you have the surface area of a skyscraper side in mirrors and can arrange them like you want... it gets pretty pretty hot. That's the temperature, about the energy: Steel melts at 1370 °C, specific heat of carbon steel is 490 J/kg K. I can't find the actually melting energy. But this means, roughly, that you need 168.5 kWh to raise a ton of steel to melting temperature. The Wikipedia article says the Odeillo device creates 3200 kW (although that paragraph seems to be cut off)., so in principle it should be possible to melt a car. Scary thing.
  - cr0sh 9y ago
    Heck - if you purchase a new F-150, a simple engine fire can melt the entire thing to almost nothing (the truck is mostly made from aluminum - one of their prototypes a year or so ago on a test run caught fire to amusing results - no one was injured, fortunately)...
  - vanderZwan 9y ago
    Wow, TIL. Thank you! Good that the building doesn't have a perfect focal point then!

vanderZwan 9y ago

Well, melt the paint on cars. I suspect that the amount of energy required to melt an entire car would be quite a lot more than even a skyscraper worth of surface area could gather from the sun. > This isn't the first time Viñoly's architecture has raised eyebrows as well as temperatures: His Vdara Hotel in Las Vegas has been criticized for directing sunbeams onto the swimming pool deck that are hot enough to melt plastic and singe people's hair. The hotspot became known as the "Vdara death ray." Based on this I'm inclined to believe Viñoly fits the negative "rockstar architect" stereotype. I mean, making that mistake once is one thing, but then doing it again?

captainmuon 9y ago
> I suspect that the amount of energy required to melt an entire car would be quite a lot more than even a skyscraper worth of surface area could gather from the sun. Actually, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_furnace https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_furnace ... The furnace in Odeillo, France can reach up to 3500 °C, and it's cross section is just about 50x50 meters. Of course, your typical skyscraper won't create those temperatures accidentially, but if you have the surface area of a skyscraper side in mirrors and can arrange them like you want... it gets pretty pretty hot. That's the temperature, about the energy: Steel melts at 1370 °C, specific heat of carbon steel is 490 J/kg K. I can't find the actually melting energy. But this means, roughly, that you need 168.5 kWh to raise a ton of steel to melting temperature. The Wikipedia article says the Odeillo device creates 3200 kW (although that paragraph seems to be cut off)., so in principle it should be possible to melt a car. Scary thing.
- cr0sh 9y ago
  Heck - if you purchase a new F-150, a simple engine fire can melt the entire thing to almost nothing (the truck is mostly made from aluminum - one of their prototypes a year or so ago on a test run caught fire to amusing results - no one was injured, fortunately)...
- vanderZwan 9y ago
  Wow, TIL. Thank you! Good that the building doesn't have a perfect focal point then!