RE: Science Porn
February 11, 2016 at 12:03 am
(This post was last modified: February 11, 2016 at 12:07 am by Fireball.)
OK, disclaimer, I have a cold, and Benadryl removes a lot of my capabilities, including about 50 IQ points that I really need. That said-
If one were to place a reflective surface in the shape of an ellipsoid of revolution that has the Sun and the Earth at the foci (what a monster!), radiation from the sun would whiff the Earth to vapor in incredibly short order. One could also simply use a portion of that ellipse, truncated at the focus where the sun is (on the side away from the Earth- a lot easier) and still boil the Earth away in short order. Temperature, per the 2nd law, doesn't even matter. The incoming energy flux would be immense. I can make the calculations, but it'll be a couple of days. This cold is really kicking my ass.
If one were to place a reflective surface in the shape of an ellipsoid of revolution that has the Sun and the Earth at the foci (what a monster!), radiation from the sun would whiff the Earth to vapor in incredibly short order. One could also simply use a portion of that ellipse, truncated at the focus where the sun is (on the side away from the Earth- a lot easier) and still boil the Earth away in short order. Temperature, per the 2nd law, doesn't even matter. The incoming energy flux would be immense. I can make the calculations, but it'll be a couple of days. This cold is really kicking my ass.
If you get to thinking you’re a person of some influence, try ordering somebody else’s dog around.