Comments on: Comments on 6247

Post number 6247

zeoslap — Wed, 07 Mar 2001 10:57:04 -0800

Barbecue Wings A £900,000 mirror sculpture destined for a square in Nottingham, UK, will have to be shielded to prevent it focusing the Sun's rays and barbecuing passing birds. Anish Kapoor's highly polished concave steel mirror is six metres in diameter. Direct sunlight hitting the mirror would be focused into a narrow beam of light as hot as the surface of the Sun, says astronomer Michael Merrifield of Nottingham University.

By: tregoweth

tregoweth — Wed, 07 Mar 2001 11:04:29 -0800

Killer sculpture...now that's art!

By: o2b

o2b — Wed, 07 Mar 2001 11:27:02 -0800

as hot as the surface of the Sun? i have a hard time believing that. but even so, couldn't there be a practical use for that much heat?

By: mikewas

mikewas — Wed, 07 Mar 2001 11:57:27 -0800

I'm sure there's some cad trying to figure out how to aim it at the French.

By: swell

swell — Wed, 07 Mar 2001 12:02:02 -0800

I have a hard time believing that somebody designed something that accidentally has the side effect of generating a very, very hot beam of light, and didn't foresee the consequences.

By: RakDaddy

RakDaddy — Wed, 07 Mar 2001 12:07:23 -0800

Sounds like something out of a Bond movie...is Q Branch doing field testing?

By: boylog

boylog — Wed, 07 Mar 2001 12:18:44 -0800

I'm speaking from experience when I say this: Most artists aren't generally physicists, so I'm not suprised he didn't forsee the consequences. Then again, I thought everyone did that little experiment in third grade with the tinfoil and the hot-dog...

By: zeoslap

zeoslap — Wed, 07 Mar 2001 12:29:31 -0800

they should hold an event where people get to fling stuff into it's fiery beam, with judges scoring the ensuing fireball for artistic merit, y'know to promote um art ;)

By: Sal Amander

Sal Amander — Wed, 07 Mar 2001 12:43:36 -0800

Hahaha...this is the funniest thing that I've heard in a while. I actually have a cigarette lighter that's a 4 inch concave mirror with a clip at the focus to place the tip of the cigarette on, and they do light right up. I cannot imagine what would happen if it were 6 meters in diameter! I would think that the birds would explode...

By: Su

Su — Wed, 07 Mar 2001 13:13:06 -0800

I second Zeoslap!

By: dragonmage

dragonmage — Wed, 07 Mar 2001 13:31:36 -0800

The surface temperature of the Sun is only 6000K, so its very likely the description is apt. Plus, this technique has been used for industrial purposes such as smelting metals; a surface area of 6m in diameter is over 28m^2 focussed into a small area; that's a lot of sunlight !

By: mblandi

mblandi — Wed, 07 Mar 2001 15:17:21 -0800

What, Dragonmage, no website? That comment had me ready to visit.

By: Potsy

Potsy — Wed, 07 Mar 2001 18:47:38 -0800

Focusing the sun's rays with a mirror is almost as much fun as using a giant Fresnel lens. Those suckers make fun toys. (Fresnel originally developed his lens for use in lighthouses.)

By: Mo Nickels

Mo Nickels — Thu, 08 Mar 2001 01:05:19 -0800

It'd take two months to get that one day of sun in Nottingham sufficient to fry an ant, much less a bird.

By: MarkC

MarkC — Thu, 08 Mar 2001 03:34:16 -0800

I think they've found the perfect solution to the Trafalgar Square pigeon problem.

By: Loudmax

Loudmax — Thu, 08 Mar 2001 03:35:38 -0800

This begs the question-- What was Nottingham's government thinking, when they approved this? Can people really design any dangerous construct and call it art? It sounds like more of an eyesore to me. Unless they do authorize zeoslap's flinging contest, in which case it's absolutely brilliant.