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I walked past this the other day when they were building it out in front of MIT. What was amazing to me was not that it can melt steel, but that the mirrors the
by dcurtis 18y ago
I walked past this the other day when they were building it out in front of MIT. What was amazing to me was not that it can melt steel, but that the mirrors they used were built to such perfect concavity with insanely smooth surfaces. The article suggests a possible application of the technology is bringing heat and solar electricity to poorer countries, but I have a hard time believing those perfect mirrors are really that inexpensive.
To compare this thing to anything Archimedes could have made is laughable.
- wallflower 18y ago> To compare this thing to anything Archimedes could have made is laughable. Agreed. The quote about Archimedes was because I think he was ahead of his time (and technology). The idea of concentrating and focusing, not the implementation (and not necessarily the use - burning ships)
- hugh 18y agoIs it really that impressive compared to the mirror in any of the world's largest telescopes? I mean, good work being built by students at low cost and all, but any serious observatory will have a mirror which is larger and a lot smoother. On the other hand, I just got back from my first trip to Chicago where I was insanely impressed by the giant mirrored jellybean in Millennium Park, so I don't deny the impressiveness of big shiny objects.
- Xichekolas 18y agoFrom their website: > "RawSolar's patented design flexes flat mirror into precisely the right shape without any special tooling or skilled labor" So I think they just use plain flat mirrors and flex them with the frame, which would keep the cost down.