Last year, my boys and I built a parabolic line reflector as a science experiment. It was awesome - concentrated the sun down to a line and we used it to cook hotdogs on a spit.
We later built version 2 that could burn a hole through a mm thick sheet of aluminum in < 15 seconds.
So, fast-forward to last Monday. I had President's Day off, so I did some ice fishing (C&R three nice trout). On Tuesday, my wife called me at work around lunchtime. As soon as I heard that flat voice I knew I was in trouble:
WIFE: "Your pants are on fire."
DANG: "...?"
WIFE: "I said, your pants are on fire - the fishing pants."
DANG: "Oh! My waders. Ok... did you say on fire?"
WIFE: "Yeah, on fire. Dangatang, where did you leave your waders?"
DANG: "On the porch."
WIFE: "Do you know what else is on the porch?"
DANG: "There's a lotta stuff-"
WIFE: "The reflector is on the porch..."
DANG: "...?... Holy buckets!!!"
As luck would have it, I had left my (turned inside out, black) waders to dry just at the focal point of the reflector. It was a sunny day, and the concentrated sun quickly warmed up the pants to the point that they burned! My wife came home to see smoke on the porch, went outside to investigate and saw the small fire on my wader leg. She put it out, then put two and two together, and gave me the angry call.
Easily the best reason to date that I've ever caught hell for. Power of the sun!
Dang
