Let's go green! Build a Solar Powered Parabolic Cooker!

Step 3 Cut some Shapes!

First, assemble the stencil. There are instructions in the zip file on doing this, but it's pretty self explanatory. Then, trace it on to the foam board twice. Cut those out.

Now you need to cut a rectangle from the poster board. The short side of a standard piece of poster board is just the right length to wrap around the parabola. It should be about a foot wide.

Next, wrap one side of each cut out piece with the shiny side of tin foil. Make sure not to wrinkle the tin foil. Some other suggestions for what to wrap with (provided by other members) are:

Plastic mirror
The material that chip bags are made of (use the inside, reflective side)

Draw a dot onto the foam board through the stencil where the point of focus is...then poke a hole through that dot.

Comments

[dreamin0fyoohx]

how do you find the foci of the parabola used in this thing?

[theblindferrengi]

if the equation is included, the foci will be along the symmetry with the distance from the verticy being x²=4py, p being the distance needed, but if you dont have the equation then it will be straight up on the symmetry line and if you run a line perpendicular to the symmetry line the perpendicular line will intersect the parabola twice as far as its height from the verticy.

[Weissensteinburg]

It's marked on the stencil.