Harnessing the Power of Parabolas With Solar Hot Dog Cookers
The Oakwood High School Algebra II Honors class built solar hot dog cookers to apply the property of the focus of a parabola in a real-life situation. This fascinating project allowed us to understand the meaning of a parabola’s focus and its practical application. Each student constructed a parabola inside his/her shoebox and covered it with reflective tin foil. Then, we calculated the position of our parabola focus and placed a skewer with the sausage there. Most of the sunbeams bounced off the foil surface of the shoeboxes and were directed straight into the focus, where our sausages were located. This allowed our hot dogs to heat up, and get ready for the feast.
I was so absorbed by the project, that I decided to implement a few extra things to increase the efficiency of my solar hot dog cooker. First, I installed a motor powered by a solar panel to spin the skewer holding the sausage, to cook it evenly. I also made my solar cooker mobile. I added askew wheels for the construction to catch the perfect angle of sunlight. This leads to my last accessory, probably the most valuable one. I attached a third motor to permit my solar cooker to tilt toward the sun. It aligns itself with the sun like the Parker Solar Probe to maximize sun exposure. I secured two solar panels on each side of the shoebox. In addition, I connected a rubber string to both ends of the shoebox and the motor in the middle. When either solar panel gets energy from the sun, it causes the motor to spin in different directions. The shoebox acts like a shield in this situation. When it's not angled precisely at the sun, one of the motors dominates the tilt. Once the sun is accessible to both solar panels, my solar cooker stops in the optimized position when both motors cancel each other out. Once the sun moves, my solar cooker adjusts with the precision of a few degrees.
I was fascinated with the project. It was an excellent way for us to understand and experience the meaning of the focus of the parabola. This was also a unique opportunity to build something helpful for the environment. It was a brilliant idea to construct a useful device completely sustained by solar energy.