solar oven
i think solar ovens are pretty cool. i want one. i made a pizza box version a while ago. it didn't work worth a shit. so i've been looking at parabolic mirrors. they'd have to be kinda big to collect enough solar flux to be as hot as the burner on a stove. like 1-2 square meters. making a parabolic mirror seems kinda hard. one could make a mold out of clay. or foam. and then what? maybe melt some acrylic mirror onto it. sigh. making one parabolic mirror is beyond me. give up? never! i'll make two parabolic mirrors. obvious, right? it's pretty easy to bend a mirror in one direction. just string it like a bow. voila! the big mirror focuses the light down onto the small mirror. which focuses the light left/right onto the pot. now we're cooking with solar fire. heh. sorta. my "mirror" is shiny furnace tape on pressboard. it's mostly reflective but not very mirror like. we'll see if it is actually reflective enough to cook with. if not i'll have to put $200 worth of mirror acrylic plexiglass on my birthday/christmas wish list.