Random Destructive Acts via Focused Solar Radiation

conjur

No Lifer
Jun 7, 2001
58,686
3
0
http://www-personal.umich.edu/~bclee/lens.html#faq

A lot of people want to know what temperatures we achieved. It's hard to make this estimate, the real question should be how much power the lens can supply (and you can see more about this below). But in terms of estimates, we certainly melted aluminum which has a melting point of 660.37 degC. We never quite managed to melt copper with the old lens but (melting point of 1083.4 degC) but we have with the new one (see below) so I think we could have if the sidewalk had not been so fragile. Assuming a black body target and that the sun supplies 1340 W/m^2 (before atmospheric absorption) we calculated that we should be able to melt quartz (1610 degC) but in practice I don't believe we achieved temperatures that high.



:D