Death ray not fully functional

[woolymonkey]

Spidermonkey now has his own userpic.  Since I still haven't had time to upload pictures of his artwork for the school production of Hair, here's what he told me about his day yesterday.

"M [spider's dangerously bright friend] built a death ray at break time, but it didn't work." 

Apparently, if you rub the bottom of a Coke can with chocolate (which is - again apparently - a weak alkali) for three hours, you get a concave shiny surface capable of focusing the sun's rays into a deadly beam.

The break-time death ray was scuppered by insufficient chocolate-rubbing time and the sun going behind a cloud, but M allegedly built a working one at home. 
"How did he know it worked?" I asked nervously. 
"He tried it on a leaf."

Has anyone heard of this before?  Is it based on any kind of reality at all?

Comments

[smtfhw.livejournal.com]

"M [spider's dangerously bright friend] built a death ray at break time, but it didn't work."

We should perhaps be grateful that they ran out of time...!

[woolymonkey.livejournal.com]

And today is rainy, so the people of Cambridge can relax until at least Monday.

[justawench.livejournal.com]

I think I saw that on Survivorman. It really does create a concave surface so shiny that you can start a fire with the right tinder.

(Love the new icon!)

[woolymonkey.livejournal.com]

It has that ring of so weird it has to be true. The icon suits spidermonkey - he likes to fly through the air at a great height.

[teenybuffalo.livejournal.com]

On the one hand, if M is anything like a friend I used to hang out with as a small child, then he is probably exaggerating just a touch.

On the other hand, I suppose that lots and lots of chocolate-rubbing would produce a smooth, polished concave surface. After all, the diamond-paste abrasive that you use to polish gemstones is a goop that feels about the consistency of chocolate frosting. So I'm with Wenchy here, perhaps one can fry a leaf with such a thing.

On the other other hand, of course I've never met M. And I hear you have fantastic schools over there. Perhaps he knows more physics than I. In which case, I'm now the one wondering if the Atlantic is wide enough. Please post again soon so that I know he hasn't finished his death ray and accidentally incinerated England.

On the fourth hand, even a death ray seems like such a huge waste of chocolate...

[woolymonkey.livejournal.com]

This in NOT something they learned at school, but M's dad is some kind of engineering prof. The lad has built a working gun out of k*nex for chrissakes! It shoots holes through their garden fence.

England currently much too soggy for incineration. Death ray might be handy for drying us out although, as you say, probably better to eat the chocolate.

Blergh! I just realised M and spidermonkey would probably be happy to eat the chocolate after they've rubbed it around the bottom of a Coke can for 3 hours.

Death ray

[(Anonymous)]

I wonder whether the shiny concave coca-cola tin works like a magnifying glass in reverse. You probably know that one can focus sunlight to light a fire (therefore burn leaves) with a convex len. Could a concave reflector do the same thing? With that theory, the chocolate would only work as a sort of polish and might even be unnecessary

Nanamonkey