Often times, during famine, war or other times of tremendous hardship, Americans have sent food to starving populations elsewhere in the world. But how do they cook it? Who has time to gather fuel for a fire when warlords are killing indiscriminantly? Who has time to wash dishes when you have to walk forty miles to get safe water? I recently read this article about parabolic mirrors being used to drive sterling engines for cheap, eco friendly energy...but it mentioned that the tempuratures the mirror generated were high enough to melt aluminum. So I figure that a less efficient, and cheaper mirror could deliver quite a bit of heat to a large area...enough, say to get pans and pots hot enough to cook...or even barbeque without fire. For cost and shipping purposes, the mirror could be made, not in the normal parabolic shape, but either in a frenzel lense fashion, or a series of flat mirrors that could piece together with similar geometry to a geodesic dome...but warped into a parabolic curve. This could curb reliance on polluting methods of cooking, save time, and be extremely convenient...just put in sun, align, and hold your food or pan in the reflected light, and adjust distance from focal point.
-- hopeful, Jul 25 2003

solar baked http://www.solarcoo...htm#parabolic-style
[FarmerJohn, Oct 04 2004]

random, halfbakery