Happy Birthday

So, I was wondering what's really important on this day?

• I started my voyage around the Sun at about 2 am on 28th feb 1988 and today I've orbited the sun 17 times.
  
• Legaly, I'm an adult from now on! {oh! really }
• The moon circled me about 240 times
• The year was 1988, leap yr, if I'd born a day after....on 29th....Feb...?
• Mom said it rained that day
• India celebrates National Science Day on the 28th February of every year. It is on this day that Sir.CV Raman discovered Raman effect in 1928 and recieved Nobel Prize in 1930 {Physics}.

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Moving on..
I had another big idea...
which can, {I think}
> Revolutionise Solar Cars,
> Generate energy from traffic on roads,
> Efficiently Capture solar energy from the roof of your home
> Can be installed in high-rise buildings.
But first, understand what's a Solar Tower. See the animation below;

Image courtesy: Sandia National Laboratories
Animated by Mridul

See that the ground surface is flat and still we are able to concentrate sunlight, without using any parabolic reflectors etc.
So,
Now imagine a miniature version of this arrangement. Tiny little reflectors {like the heliostats} are mounted on a flexible {say plastic} sheet. These reflectors are mounted in a checked arrangement, just like the chess-board. And we'll use some form of electronics to control the alignment of the reflectors.


Control?
With a digital circuit controlling the alignment of reflectors; just like pixels are controlled in LCD screens; we can 'tell' the reflectors to face the sun and align in such a way that sunlight is focussed on a point in space.
Results? {Imagined ;) }
Visualise a Solar car covered end to end with such a sheet. And we can add a mini tower on the top of vehicle. This tower will act as a collector of sunlight and it will channelise the intense beam of light into the body of car. Then, we can seperate this light-beam into its constituent colours {spectrum}(earlier post) and place solar cells at the blue end and a stirling engine {heat engine} at the red end.

See! we have increased the power of Solar car:
Present Day Solar Car Power = Light+Photovoltaic cells
Our Solar Car Power = [Light+Photovoltaic cells]+[Heat+Stirling Engine] => More power
See the Difference!
Other uses of this idea will be discussed later. Its 4 am now; I'm feelin sleepy. Ceya

Do you like this idea? Any Questions?
Please provide Feedback.
Feel free to do so. Click on "Comments" below