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An Ikea Bowl Has Been Setting Things on Fire

atlasobscura.com

41–50 of 132 posts

Re: An Ikea Bowl Has Been Setting Things on Fire

#41

The same phenomenon occurs with glass spheres. If you think about it it is obvious enough (most people are familiar with how a magnifying glass concentrates the ray of the sun in a single spot), but it is something people tend to overlook when employing glass spheres as elements of your interior design — e.g., glass door knobs, large marbles, and decorative knick-knacks (which people have a tendency to place on their…

Actually one of the official 'old school' tool to measure sun exposure thru the day in meteo stations is a glass sphere with a calibrated piece of paper underneath. Needs to be changed everyday, but the burn mark is quite neatly drawn on the chart. EDIT: Found it again https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Campbell%E2%80%93Stokes_record...

[deleted]

Re: An Ikea Bowl Has Been Setting Things on Fire

#44

"Archimedes heat bowl" would be a better name, Wikipedia: "The device, sometimes called the "Archimedes heat ray", was used to focus sunlight onto approaching ships, causing them to catch fire. " https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archimedes

It has to be Swedish

Just add some goofy accent marks and an extra 'j'. Ärchïmêdëš Bjol

Re: An Ikea Bowl Has Been Setting Things on Fire

#45
post #32

Reminds of this (sadly discontinued) project: http://www.photongrill.com/

There's also this parabolic solar camp stove I spotted on the REI site a few months ago. Seems like an absolute gimmick, but the few reviews are all very positive: https://www.rei.com/product/100561/gosun-sport-solar-camp-st...

The Boy Scout handbook (1980's version) had an aluminum foil solar oven design for cooking a hot dog. It was a version of that psychology test of putting marshmallows in front of kids. The patient scouts got a cooked hotdog in about 45 minutes - on a bright summer day. I ate a raw one after about 10.

Re: An Ikea Bowl Has Been Setting Things on Fire

#46

The same phenomenon occurs with glass spheres. If you think about it it is obvious enough (most people are familiar with how a magnifying glass concentrates the ray of the sun in a single spot), but it is something people tend to overlook when employing glass spheres as elements of your interior design — e.g., glass door knobs, large marbles, and decorative knick-knacks (which people have a tendency to place on their…

Actually one of the official 'old school' tool to measure sun exposure thru the day in meteo stations is a glass sphere with a calibrated piece of paper underneath. Needs to be changed everyday, but the burn mark is quite neatly drawn on the chart. EDIT: Found it again https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Campbell%E2%80%93Stokes_record...

That is fascinating and worthy its own submission!

Re: An Ikea Bowl Has Been Setting Things on Fire

#47

The same phenomenon occurs with glass spheres. If you think about it it is obvious enough (most people are familiar with how a magnifying glass concentrates the ray of the sun in a single spot), but it is something people tend to overlook when employing glass spheres as elements of your interior design — e.g., glass door knobs, large marbles, and decorative knick-knacks (which people have a tendency to place on their…

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

Re: An Ikea Bowl Has Been Setting Things on Fire

#49
post #37
post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same architect did the same thing with their previous building, then didn't learn their lesson.

I still wonder if it was more a case of wanting to see how many times they could get away with it.

I think he did learn the lesson, but then his fix for it was removed in the cost-cutting phase.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/1029...

Re: An Ikea Bowl Has Been Setting Things on Fire

#50
post #33
post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, basically.

But actually how close is the bowl to a parabola?

I'm going to find out this afternoon. I've got two of these at home (the medium sized and the large one). I'm guessing the overall shape is the same between those and the small size one pictured in the article. We'll see!
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