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.
