Instructions
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Consider this:
The sun’s energy can be harnessed to cook large pots of boiling water to a singular hot dog. With this experiment you will even have chips for a side dish!
Materials:
- Scissors or Craft Knife
- Tape
- Marker
- Wood Skewer
- Glue
- Plastic wrap
- Chip Can, not plastic
- Hot Dog
- Empty the chip container and wipe it out.
- Draw a rectangle on one side of the can, the length of the can.
- Leave about a centimeter at each end – do not cut all the way to the ends.
- Locate the center of the plastic lid and carefully put a small hole in the lid.
- Thread the wooden skewer through the lid hole (sharp end first).
- Locate the center of the end of the can and carefully put a small hole in the bottom.
- Push the wooden skewer through the hole – enough that the skewer is suspended.
- Take plastic wrap and tape and cover the rectangular hole.
- Tape this tight – we want to keep bugs out and heat in.
- Remove the lid, pulling the wooden skewer with the lid.
- Thread a hot dog onto the skewer.
- Place the cooker in the sun.
- Rotate hot dog by twisting the wooden skewer on the lid end of the cooker.
- This solar cooker works because it traps light particles, called photons, inside and that generates heat.
- The interior of the chip can is reflective so it directs the photons back to the hot dog.
- Solar cookers are used around the world to cook food and pasteurize water for safe drinking.
- The first solar cooker was invented by Horace de Saussure, a Swiss Naturalist, in approximately 1767.
- On a clear day the cooker can heat up to 250 degrees F and on partially cloudy days the oven will heat to 200-250 degrees F.
- It is best to calculate the food will take twice as long to cook in a solar cooker.