Friday, October 5, 2012

Coaster series: Experimenting with mirrors--- reflecting light

Part 9 of series:  Concentrated Solar Thermal Rocket

Some pics I took yesterday while experimenting with a small hand held mirror.


Sunrise


A picture of a light before sunrise

There's a reflected light from the side mirror to the hand held mirror.  The light divides the shadow at the bottom of the door.  Can you see it?
   


Experimenting with reflection of light showed me a little about what needs to be done in placing the mirrors.

All of these little "experiments" made me remember the time I went to a barbershop where there were mirrors facing each other.  The mirrors reflecting themselves into an infinity of copies of reflections.  Light will bounce back and forth infinitely if the mirrors face each other like that.

Anyway, I figure the mirrors should be placed along the path taken and then angled down a little to the target.

I begin to think about the size of the mirrors and the numbers needed.  I wonder how much  light can fresnel lens handle if you have 1000 mirrors?   If 10 mirrors per fresnel lens, you would need 100 lenses.

Also, what if you hit with light several locations on ring?  How many rocket motors will you need?  And so forth.

Update:

Oops!  This is part 10, not part 9.


No comments: