[Rockhounds] Inca Indians Used Solar Power To Cut Rocks

[Kreigh Tomaszewski]

Fair disclosure: Brenda is my Club's Newsletter Editor that republished
the article under discussion. I think she does a great job.

Kreigh




Nick & Brenda Van Dyke wrote:
> 
> I thought the article was interesting enough to reprint.
> 
> My "off the clock" job is to try to keep our club informed of club-related
> information.  Along with that comes trying to fill blank pages.  In that
> area, I aim to entertain.  Glad to see at least it got this crowd talking
> :o)
> 
> Brenda
> 
> On 11/8/07, DonH <donhalterman at verizon.net> wrote:
> >
> > Gary Brown wrote:
> > > Did some research...  1990 article.  They tried to replicate it on a PBS
> > > Nova show, but couldn't.  Only 2 pages of Google links on a search for
> > "Ivan
> > > Watkins" and "Inca".  There's no "Ivan Watkins" at St. Cloud State as of
> > > 2007.
> >
> >
> > Indeed... A simple recall of high school mathematics will remind us that
> > parabolas focus incoming rays at a point.  Conversely, rays emanating
> > from the focal point will be reflected in parallel.  Satellite dishes
> > are not parabolas, they are offset parabolic sections.  If the Incas had
> > such a technology, they would have been clearing forests, reshaping the
> > landscape, and most likely, laying waste to enemies.  The use of such
> > tools would have been legendary and would have certainly been noted by
> > the Spaniards.
> >
> > This goes to show that someone can have a PhD and still be an idiot.
> >
> > Don
> >
> >