[ExI] mr. medes car fire

[spike at rainier66.com]

Hey cool, fun idea: you may have heard of the urban legend which has been
around longer than actual urban areas.  Some fellers were being invaded by
sea, so they all got mirrors and focused sunlight on the invaders and set
them on fire.  An old timer named Archie wrote about it.  Archie Medes I
think his name was.

 

The problem with that is that convection carries away the heat too fast.  I
think old Medes was telling us a tall tale.  But what if. we got a bunch of
mirrors and focused sunlight on a car?  We know that if you leave a candle
inside a closed car in the desert in July, it will turn into a waxy mess, so
we know it is getting above 60-some C.  We know that we don't have that dang
far to go to get into the 90s, which is about the auto-ignition range of
carbon disulfide.

 

Any guesses about whether we can set an old car on fire if we put some
carbon disulfide in the back seat and shine a bunch of mirrors on it on a
really hot day in a place like the Panamint Valley?  I think we might be
able to.

 

spike

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