Parabolic Cooking

As I read about parabolas on the mathisfun page, I couldn't help but be fascinated by the "Reflector" example. It displays many different rays, all bouncing off the inside of a parabola, coming together in a "focus point." This had never been covered in class, so it was quite new to me. It certainly made sense though. The lightbulb in a flashlight lies at the focus point, and is surrounded by a parabolic mirror.

Anyways, I realized that if a parabolic mirror were placed in the sun, it would direct all of the suns rays to its focus point. The heat would be intense at this point, because all of the energy is focused at that point. I realized that this is sort of the concept behind a solar oven. However, a traditional solar oven is much less efficient than a parabolic mirror, as it uses flat pieces of tin foil which a) don't reflect as much light b) reflect the light over a much more broad area. A parabolic mirror, forming a sort of dish, would be a super efficient solar oven. A small surface could be install at the surface point, It could be used to bake items which require lesser amounts of heat, such as chocolate chip cookies. This oven could be installed in any spot outside, on a pivot, allowing the dish to be rotated towards the sun. A parabolic mirror would not only work great as an oven, but it could be used by anyone and never require any extra energy.