5 ms·
>The analogous problem for you would be that you couldn't maintain your electric heat ray (or whatever) for a time equal to or greater than the time you spent c
by DenisM 8y ago
>The analogous problem for you would be that you couldn't maintain your electric heat ray (or whatever) for a time equal to or greater than the time you spent collecting.
Yes, yes I can. 1000 solar panels (200 watts each) will power a an electric arc welder up to 20,000 C continuously for as along as the sun shines in the sky.
There is nothing here that collects energy across time, all energy is immediately imparted onto the electric arc.
- schoen 8y agoYeah, maybe it was a red herring (a black-body herring?) to bring up batteries here. The solar panel itself is already non-reversible, and so is the arc welder, right? That seems to be the important difference from the lens. In that sense, we don't run either of them "for free" in the way that the xkcd piece describes.