'death ray' burns Las Vegas sunbathers

[glenc (Glen)]

They should have thought of this! Astronomers would have.

"MGM Resorts International is taking the heat for an intense beam of searing desert sunlight, jokingly dubbed the "death ray", that some hotel guests say poses a risk of severe burns to bathers lounging poolside.
The beam is actually a concentrated reflection of solar rays bouncing off the gleaming glass facade of the concave-shaped, high-rise Vdara hotel and condominium, which opened on the Las Vegas "strip" in December.
Local media, as well as some hotel staff and guests, have come to refer to the reflection as the "death ray", but MGM Resorts officials prefer to call it a "solar convergence phenomenon".
"The refraction moves across the pool deck over a period of 90 minutes," company spokesman Gordon Absher said. "It's never in the same place from day to day or week to week because the sun is changing its elevation in the sky."
MGM Resorts, which owns the property, has sought to correct the problem by installing a high-tech solar film over each of the 3000 glass panes covering the south facade of the Vdara to scatter the rays.
But the concentrated sunlight remains hot enough at certain times, in certain spots, to melt plastic and singe hair, said William Pintas, 49, a Chicago lawyer and Vdara condo owner who first encountered the effect after a dip in the pool."

http://www.smh.com.au/travel/travel-...004-163gi.html

[GrahamL]

Thats a funny read Glen

Strange how the death ray only wants to warm the towls of other guests .. yet wants to torch the injury lawyer

[Kevnool (Kev)]

Not to bad on a cool day.

Typical lawyer tho.

The hotel may be observing there OH&S policy by providing free sunscreen to the guests.

Funny tho.

Cheers Kev.

[Esseth (Alan)]

Gold, imagine what they could do if they were trying to create a real death ray

[multiweb (Marc)]

Vdara Hotel ? Sounds like Death Star business to me... I wonder if the concierge is 7ft tall with a black helmet and heavy breathing?

[Bassnut (Fred)]

A few well placed solar arrays and you have a "green" friendly hotel.

[AstralTraveller (David)]

Originally Posted by glenc

.......
"The refraction moves across the pool deck.....

Is the building transparent??

[DavidU (Dave)]

They lost me in the refraction bit.

[Steffen]

I'm with the lawyers on this one, this is pure negligence. Concave mirrors plus sun is a fire hazard, everybody knows that! Or at least everybody should

Cheers
Steffen.

[shelltree (Shelley)]

It figures. They were dumb enough to build a city out in the middle of the desert in the first place, the death ray is just the icing on the cake

[jjjnettie (Jeanette)]

Originally Posted by Bassnut

A few well placed solar arrays and you have a "green" friendly hotel.

What an excellent idea! Why waste such a resource?

[Zaps]

Originally Posted by shelltree

It figures. They were dumb enough to build a city out in the middle of the desert in the first place...

That could never happen here.

[Ric]

This could be a good story line for CSI Las Vegas.

The only problem is we now know what's going to happen.

[glenc (Glen)]

Teen's 'solar death ray' can melt concrete
http://www.smh.com.au/technology/sci...204-1afxk.html

"A US teenager has built his own "solar death ray" out of thousands of mirrors that is capable of melting anything from metal to concrete.
Eric Jacqmain, 19, from Indiana, demonstrated the $US90 contraption in a YouTube clip and claims it offers the "power of 5000 suns". That claim is likely an exaggeration but the clip shows the ray can melt pretty much any object.
It is essentially a fibreglass satellite dish covered in 5800 small mirror tiles, which focus the sunlight into a spot the size of a coin when positioned correctly..."

[GeoffW1 (Geoff)]

Originally Posted by Zaps

That could never happen here.

It did. The Wentworth Hotel hotel in Sydney used to set passports on fire in Chifley Square

Cheers

[Ric]

Originally Posted by glenc

Teen's 'solar death ray' can melt concrete
http://www.smh.com.au/technology/sci...204-1afxk.html

"A US teenager has built his own "solar death ray" out of thousands of mirrors that is capable of melting anything from metal to concrete.
Eric Jacqmain, 19, from Indiana, demonstrated the $US90 contraption in a YouTube clip and claims it offers the "power of 5000 suns". That claim is likely an exaggeration but the clip shows the ray can melt pretty much any object.
It is essentially a fibreglass satellite dish covered in 5800 small mirror tiles, which focus the sunlight into a spot the size of a coin when positioned correctly..."

That's awesome, I think this lad is definitely in the running to be the next Bond super villian

[Barrykgerdes]

Originally Posted by Steffen

I'm with the lawyers on this one, this is pure negligence. Concave mirrors plus sun is a fire hazard, everybody knows that! Or at least everybody should

Cheers
Steffen.

The mirrors (reflectors) do not need to be concave in fact plain reflectors would be better. Just imagine the heat generated if I took nine panes of glass in a window panel with nine panes then carefully adjusted the reflection of the sun from each pane to a point in the distance. The temperature at this point would be at least in the vicinity of 300 deg C

This so called "myth" has been around since I think it was Archamedes who used the principle to destroy a fleet.

Barry

[TrevorW]

This so called "myth" has been around since I think it was Archamedes who used the principle to destroy a fleet.

Barry[/QUOTE]

Never happened didn't you watch the Mythbusters episode