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Reflections from London skyscraper are reportedly melting parked cars

theverge.com

3 points by Zoepfli 13 years ago · 1 comment

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lutusp 13 years ago

Two of the building's sides are in essence giant two-dimensional concave mirrors, and the building's windows are silvered to reflect the heat away from its interior. I cannot imagine a better candidate for concentrating solar energy in unintended ways.

In this image --

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8398/8677105491_93e6da7ab9_z.j...

-- one can clearly see that, at the side to the right, the building's windows create a two-dimensional concave curve, with an intense point of focus some distance away.

What I can't understand is why the architect didn't consider hiring a physicist to warn him about this geometry.

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