Homemade incinerator beam!

[Kamog]

I remember reading an article some time ago that said that in ancient Greece, over 2000 years ago, Archimedes used the same technique of using multiple mirrors to focus sunlight on enemy ships and burning them.

[ July 27, 2004, 05:33: Message edited by: Kamog ]

[narf poit chez BOOM]

I read that in elementary school. Not sure where.

[EvilGenius4ABetterTomorro]

In the late 1800's some scientist came up with a plan for the Heliograph. Using a vibrating mirror you could use sunbeams to transmit a voice message like a phonograph. Didn't explain how it was received though. Would you need a vibrating mirror to receive it? Maybe a dark colored diaphram? If Google is up I think I'll search it and Archimedes too. I'm getting too many evil thoughts. Must...have...outlet...for...thoughts!

[Jack Simth]

The reciever just has to have high-fidelity detection; it doesn't necessarily need a recieving mirror at all - a solar panel shaded against direct sunlight feeding a mic input would do the job. From the description below, one simple idea would be that the vibrations on the mirror caused by sound waves would slightly change the angle of reflection, resulting in a measureable difference in reciept at the target; a small target either has the signal or has the signal interrupted - the length of those interruptions then determines the wavelength of the sound wave that produced it. A basic amplitude modulation system, really. A sufficiently large target can actually recieve the beam all the time, but at different locations - in which case, the sound wave gets graphed in it's entierety and you get better fidelity.

Quite frankly though, a laser link is more reliable (not weather-dependant, don't need to constantly adjust for the position of the sun, can use a specfic set of wavelengths to help filter interference from other sources {can even pick frequencies the sun hardly uses so that you can broadcast even with the sun directly behind you}, et cetera).

[geoschmo]

Figure a steak the size of one of your mirrors is getting enough energy to raise it's teperature to 90+ degrees on a hot day. You only need it up to 200-300 or so to cook it. You could do it with 3 or 4 of your mirrors there. You wouldn't need or want to focus them as precisecly as you are doing there of course. You want the focal area of the reflected light about the same size as what you are cooking instead of down to a point like you are doing when burning sticks.

[Suicide Junkie]

!?
Ok, you mean Fahrenheit...

Still, don't expect the temperature to go up linearly...
The hotter it is relative to the surroundings, the faster it loses energy.