Melting Steel With Only the Sun (Video)
Photo: Youtube screen grab. See video below.
Steel's Melting Point is Approx. 1,370 °C (2,500 °F)Melting steel in a solar oven (aka solar concentrator) isn't new or unique, but it's always cool to see and a good reminder of just how much energy is hitting the sunny side of the planet at any moment. The video below shows a short exerpt of James May's "Big Ideas" series (James is better known for the Top Gear show), and they start by cooking, er, burning a sausage, and then they melt a steel plate. Impressive to see how quickly it turns to a liquid.
On average, there's about 1.366 kilowatts per square meter (kW/m²) of solar radiation hitting the surface of the Earth at any moment (on the day side, obviously).
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