Torching Pennies and Frying an Egg With 2000 Degrees of Solar Power

Grant Thompson boils water, torches wood, and melts pennies, nickles, and even concrete at about 2000 degrees Fahrenheit using his “Solar Scorcher,” a Fresnel lens taken from an old television.

I’m curious to see what I can do with all this heat so I’ve filled a glass bottle with water and I’ll punch a hole in the cap. It’s incredible to see that the instant I focus my lens on the bottle, it starts smoking. Just a few moments later this water is so hot it’s boiling, and I’m a little nervous the bottle might blow. Yep, there it goes. I’ll try burning a penny, and, wow, it melted. How about a stack of pennies? Yep, they’re nothing but liquid metal now, and I’m thinking that slag in the mixture must be what’s left of the copper coating. It’s only taking about 4 seconds to melt these.

via The Awesomer