skyscraper melt a car

[kirk1701®]

Be careful where you park and I don't mean in handicap parking or fire lanes

But it would be funny if your car got reduced to a hunk of metal when you parked where a handicap should had.

Who, what, why: How does a skyscraper melt a car?
A London skyscraper dubbed the Walkie-Talkie has been blamed for reflecting light which melted parts of a car parked on a nearby street. What happened?

It's like starting a fire with a parabolic mirror.

"Fundamentally it's reflection. If a building creates enough of a curve with a series of flat windows, which act like mirrors, the reflections all converge at one point, focusing and concentrating the light," says Chris Shepherd, from the Institute of Physics.

The half-finished 37-storey "Walkie Talkie"- nicknamed such because of its tapering rectangular design - is indeed a curvy building. Its design, which has also been compared to a brimming pint glass, has come under controversy before.

Includes video

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-23944679

 

[bmark240]

I actually attend a course opposite that very building.
It was only a loud mouthed city boy who got his 'Penis substitue' Jaaaaag slightly melted, oh the shaaaaame of it all.

:shuriken:

 

[nevyn68]

So bmark you would feel the same way if it was your car or a family members car?
This is bad.
If the carpet had caught fire and caused 10's or even 100's of thousands of pounds worth of damage and the shop was yours would you be laughing?

I hope the designers and builders are held responsible and have to pay out or fix the building.
Take some responsibility for their design.

 

[kirk1701®]

UPDATE​

This was also on World News tonight, as the rest of the story goes the builder and engineers of the building are going to tint the windows to prevent this from any further accidents.

 

[bmark240]

nevyn68:

Most of central London is now a Car free zone as thanks to our Mayor, Boris Johnson most people don't want to use the congestion zone with the charges or pay the equivalent of 10$Aus per hour to park.
As I have mentioned before, I actually attend a course opposite the 'Walkie-Talkie' building. It is quite rare that we have sun rays strong enough to cause significant damage in central London.

Things are being sorted.

Lets get one thing into some sort of perspective: The crisis in Syria is bad, this really isn't.

 

[Katzenfreund]

The story is unique enough to have made the world news and impress laymen in the public. Yet, when I was at school, parabolic mirrors were part of elementary physics. And I'd expect a graduate architect to know about them and he could have predicted this thing happening. I don't know what they teach kids at school, or university at that nowadays, but it doesn't seem to include thinking and applying what they learn rather than just memorizing it long enough to pass the exam.

 

[d25trident]

Walkie-Talkie skyscraper to have screen put up to stop rays

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-23948811

 

[EMS]

you couldn't really make it up if you tried though....I read the article the other day and found it somewhat amusing...not for the damaged car owners but the craziness of it

 

[d25trident]

i reckon a solar panel hot dog stand right out side fenchurch church station, you could direct the panels towards the walkie talkie skyscraper ... would go down a treat,, imagine the savings