How does using sunlight through a magnifying glass to start a fire work and how does it not violate the whole we can never create more energy then we put into it equation?
In: Biology
Magnifying glasses don’t create energy, they focus it.
Imagine I have an area that’s exactly 10 square inches and expose it to the sun. Each square inch gets, lets say, 2 units of sun energy. 2 units of sun energy is enough to make the area warm, but not doing anything.
Now I take my magnifying glass and focus it on the center square inch. The magnifying glass takes 1 sun energy from each other square and focuses it. So now the center square gets (2+9) units of sun energy for 11, and each other square is left with 1.
The square getting 11 units of sun energy gets very, very hot and the areas that only get 1 are actually *colder* than they would be without the magnifying glass. So energy is preserved and the one square catches on fire.
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