AQUA WATER LENS PARABOLA 100 GALLONS

[Nitrolord1]

lol i was hopen you would stand under it and cot it open.

[Michelle2815CV]

OH MAI GAWD. I WANT TO TAKE A BATH UNDER THAT THING LOL!!!

[social3ngin33rin]

LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL

[Elephantintheroom01]

How often does it rain... why not use a siphon and motor for a project to find out how much energy you could harness from it.

[fuocodifiamme]

really nice vid!

[sab611]

wouldn't it be a centenary curve?

would've been better to show a more complete vid of the idea.

[peppeddu]

what were you trying to accomplish?

it seems a pointless video

[prodprod]

The idea is to use this thing, plus water to create a really big magnifying lens which could be used to generate solar power the same way that other big (but more expensive) lenses can be used for the same thing.

But if you can ever get it to work, it's only going to be efficient with the sun basically overhead, so it isn't ever really going to be practical.

[stephengilstrap]

and what is the point of that?

[luc59457]

Awesome! I can get to your videos now. Keep up the great work friend.

[coront]

Hey great vid, what's the name of the song playing during the slow motion clip?

[trandoductin]

cool, maybe you can use this as a mold (like your barrel bottom as a mold video).

or put a giant flat mirror above that thing to reflect the sun so that it's directly downward.

i like the sound effect you made when you poked that thing very kung fu :)

[threeque]

A circular frame would give a better shape for a 'lens'...no? I would think the square corners would distort the lens shape.

Missed a good opportunity for some slo mo when you popped that sucker.

[PerfectParasite]

Liquids naturally group in a circular form.

[threeque]

Not true my friend. They will form what ever shape the container they are in will allow them to form. I know what you are implying, but you foget that the container, even a flexible container, has an influence on the shape. A circular frame WILL give 'good' circle. A square frame will be some sort of distorted ellipse, close but not a circle.

[Kellyswheels]

I was thinking the same about the round frame!

[p52ntwrk]

practical uses?

[GManGT]

Just think of it as GOD pissing on you. Maybe you did something wrong so god is very mad......hee hee..hee

[frankscola]

Your all WET!!!

[ROBwithaB]

Crazy man, Dan.

I've been doing some of the same experiments. I'm pretty sure you would get a catenary surface by doing this. (The shape that a chain assumes when hanging freely while suspended at each end.) Depends what you want to do. You'll get a focal locus.

You can convert a catenary to a parabola by suspending identical weights at multiple points. (Think suspension bridge.) This tends to flatten your lens in the centre and thicken it at the edges, converting your catenary to a parabola.

[ROBwithaB]

Sorry to burst your (water) bubble there, Dan.

Anyway, a catenary surface and a parabolic surface are very similar, especially at thin sections. Similar enough to pass the eye-test. From an optical point of view, the main difference, whether for mirrors or lenses, is that the

focus is not a single point. Rather it is a locus, in three dimensions. I'm still trying to work out the shape of the locus. I think it is egg-shaped.

Doesn't really matter though, if your collection area is big enough.

[sjh7132]

I thought a chain hanging from both ends makes a hyperbola. But I'm sure that plastic also stretched which would change things.

[GREENPOWERSCIENCE]

Not so sure the weight of the water is simply equal to that of a chain. The weight of the bridge on the cables creates a possible parabola vs a catenary of the cables under their own weight. The water may do the same thing. While I would not think this is a 100% perfect parabola, it appears close.

[ROBwithaB]

It is quite similar, because the greatest mass is concentrated in the centre. Only very small downward force at the edges. The bridge thing only works because the mass of the suspended road deck is constant along its length. (each cable carries the same load).

But the elasticity of the plastic creates a further complication.

I have tried my best to get a firm answer to this, spoken to a number of engineers, nobody seems to know.

I guess it's somewhere between the two.

[ROBwithaB]

It doesn't really matter too much though, becuase you seldom need a discrete focal point.

I have tried catenary vs parabolic mirrors in my "101 Ways to Make Fire" experiments. Generally they work fine. The temperature at the focal loci is enough to ignite charcloth. For thin lenses or mirrors, it's very difficult to tell the difference between the two shapes.

The other thing I did with my suspended-film-water-filled-pa­rabolic-lens was to use a CIRCULAR support, rather than square.

Good luck.

[WalterMelones]

DAN try setting a massive amount of cristal clear fiberglass resin in the tarp untill it is a near perfect perabola, use that as a templait for some crazy huge mirrors!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[taofledermaus]

LoL! You know me, had I had a giant blob of water suspended like that, I would have definitely been shooting at it with a BB gun and filming it in HS. lol Great video, very good contruction of your frame!

[CFrostyTheSnowman]

Not to mention it's not a cube so you cannot multiply depth by width to get the volume.

[GREENPOWERSCIENCE]

Actually it may be a whole lot more. After punching the hole, I placed a 50 gallon rain barrel on the ground in the center so the plastic acts as a funnel. We got 5 inches of rain and it overflowed. So if we got 14 inches of rain over the three days I had it collecting for this video, it might be 100+ gallons.

[CFrostyTheSnowman]

No way that is 40 gallons.

[GREENPOWERSCIENCE]

The first video had 12 gallons.

[ffsallnamestaken]

I think water has more resistance then glass and good plastic materials, will be interesting :)

[GetMeThere1]

I think it would tend to produce a caternary curve rather than a parabolic curve.

[godsend420]

when it rains it pours nice construction for the weight it had to hold 5*

[djancak]

i lol'd

[radicaldanzero]

It ought to be a crime to have as much fun with science as you two do! LOL Peace my friends.

[Bunnicula71]

Dan Rojas, you rock. Keep up the good wok sir.

We will solve this energy problem, in many ways.  I think Dan should be hired as a cheerleader for the cause by the gov't.

I think that demoing solar stuff at county and state fairs across the nation would be a major public relations coup for sustainable energy. It would give access to a resistant, right leaning population.

This is farming, it belongs at the country fair.

[piwright42]

I really wanted to see that focus light. I sincerely hope you do this again. Please do not pop it next time. :(

[TheDave570]

HDDDR18......I dont think, there is too much water to absorbe heat and it's not the focal point. Sorta like boiling water in plastic coke bottle

[TheDave570]

Dan..how bout some more on the 2 stoke

conversion.....to stirling....I hope....

[TheDave570]

Dan..u should have stuck a dish up there to see how close the shape was

[HDDDR18]

Shouldn't the plastic melt when in the sunlight?

[RamoneTalarico]

that water was just pouring out, pretty cool how it held so much in capacity, very impressive! I think a water lens would be the ultimate green earth made device, as you pointed out in the other video it cannot be pointed anywhere but down...perhaps the beam can be....redirected? anyway lot of fun as always keep it up =)

[ThisIsMySockAccount]

LOL!

[RupertsCrystals]

70 Gallons is about a quarter of a ton.

You should patent that. Dan's Quarter Ton Ice Cold Shower. ;-)

[GREENPOWERSCIENCE]

This is my above ground pool:-)

[UKBB]

It was until you jabbed a 2x4 through it.

[Frosttty]

LMAO  @Dan!

[cool70200]

So Dan, next project; a rain turbine, or rain collector/turbine?

Or too impractical?

[ellhow]

You could hopefully derive an equation for the shape of that, analytically. Especially if the plastic is deformed elastically (i.e it bounces back to flat what the watter goes away).

[Opdehoede]

Oops.

Heej

I would have liked to see if it could have heaten something up.

nain11 isn insaid djzob