But I played with it and found if I gave it a huge number 1000 of intersect points that I got a decent number of data points, I put that into excel and graphed it, and exported a picture from that…
Now that I had that I found I could manipulate that to give me a picture out which then I could use this program to make a print out of the parabola with a standard laser printer.
Attached is the results of this, I have printed this out and I am planning on testing using this as a template for either making parabolas…
I have an idea of using paper mache for the shape, I am thinking that I could make different templates make the shape with paper mache, then put the different parabolas on my Chinese cooker to give me shapes with various focal lengths away from the cooker so I don’t drip oil on the cooker itself, but must be careful not to catch things on fire
I thought for a while (okay, a long time) about how to draw a parabola with a square, straightedge, pin and and string. I finally came up with something I thought would work, but couldn’t figure out how to describe it here. Trying enough search terms, and ignoring the AI suggestions, this eventually surfaced (click on the video):
I hope it’s helpful. Oh, the ellipse and hyperbola are free too
edit: I think this might work in three dimensions if you wanted to shape a dish directly, but my head is hurting just a bit from two dimensions, so someone else can work on that.
This is the direction I am headed, now that I have the form, I should be able to move ahead with this… I am thinking aircrete with some chicken wire should give me a good form.
I saw that one and almost posted it because it was cool but it wasn’t quite what you were looking for. There was another parabolic video by someone else.
It should work as long as you get the focal point right, but I kind of like the lens from tv idea slightly better.
One of the things I have been looking for is a long focal length. I have not found a solar cooker like this before, but I love the design, To be able to cook that much meat in 45 min impressed me.
france used to or still does have a parabolic tracker set up to melt steel.
You can use the lenses from the tv’s to melt glass. The bigger trick is going to be controlling the temperature so it is even and cooks all the way through.
Yeah, I am a fan of the youtube channel “Green powered Science” he is a black belt with those lenses… I have used them but one really needs a tracker to get the most out of them.
As I think about them, now I am wondering if one could 3d print feresnel lenses… hmmm.
I googled it because someone made a 3d printed microscope for like raspberry pi and printed the lenses. I am guessing you can get clearer, because taking pictures of micro organisms needs a pretty clear lens.
Looking at this the problem is the 3d printer filiment is not clear… I am thinking that the 3d printer could print a mould which one could pour clear resin that could do the job…
It looks like they used a resin printer to print the lenses.
The University of Strathclyde developed a 3D printed microscope, including the lenses, for under $60, demonstrating the feasibility of this technology. The team used a Mars 3 Pro Resin 3D printer and Formlabs clear photopolymerising resin to print the lenses. These lenses have been shown to achieve sub-cellular resolution, according to the University of Strathclyde, and can be used in brightfield and fluorescence microscopy
