Las Vegas Hotel Vdara an Accidental Death Ray

evanism writes "A hotel in Las Vegas is accidentally designed to be a massive parabolic dish that focuses the suns rays into a death ray! Burns hair, plastic and causes pain." It apparently lasts for several minutes during afternoons of bright sunlight, but if you need to perform science on it, you better hurry since they plan to ruin/fix it.

Comments

Too much money to fix, thing outside the box

[grub]

you better hurry since they plan to ruin/fix it.

Rather than paying the incredible expense of re-engineering the hotel's windows they should just rename. Simply change the stationary and signage to "L'Hotel du Auschwitz".

Hey, they could offer free tatoos, too. Tell people that they're lucky numbers.

Re:Too much money to fix, thing outside the box

[jedidiah]

They should call out the Mythbusters. It looks like Archimede's death ray may have been vindicated.

Re:Too much money to fix, thing outside the box

[pckl300]

They could take the Steve Jobs approach and just tell customers to avoid being in the hot zone

Images

[cosm]

Interesting story. Dumbass images. Besides the burned newspaper bag and perhaps one obscure image of the parabolic hotel in question, every other image is just scenery or people partying in a pool. The fact that there are so many of them on the ABC website touts the true journalistic intent (or perhaps marketing, scantily clad women abound).

Re:Images

[RDW]

The article they probably got this story from is a bit more informative - complete with diagram!:

http://www.lvrj.com/news/vdara-visitor---death-ray--scorched-hair-103777559.html

Re:Images

[PRMan]

Nice job. Now Slashdot is going to get sued by Righthaven media for linking to the LVRJ.

http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100928/16212911200/eff-comes-out-guns-blazing-in-countersuit-against-righthaven-stepens-media.shtml

Map view

[eamonman]

http://goo.gl/maps/ZpTd

So it looks like if the sun is high up in the sky, from probably a S or SSE angle, you'd get some good ant burning action..

So how would they fix that? Put up one of those porous billboard/shade deals that Flamingo does?

Or rent it out

[tomhudson]

They could rent it out to a couple of boys to raise cattle.

After all, your beginners science class taught that "focus" is where the sons raise meat.

Re:PLEASE GO AWAY IDLE

[Ultra64]

Because it's just soooo hard to scroll past it without clicking on it. Right?

Re:Post a warning?

[red_dragon]

They could set up an infrared camera...

Damn engineers and their overcomplicated solutions. Why can't people just look for where the smoke and smell of charred human flesh is coming from?

One pun over the edge

[antifoidulus]

Alright... that's it, that pun has to be paid for in blood...everybody dies.... I mean "Come on everyone, I'm taking you all to Vegas"

Re:Post a warning?

[krnpimpsta]

Wouldn't the simplest solution be to post a warning?

"Do not look into hotel with remaining eye."

Re:Death ray

[Anonymous Coward]

It's not a euphemism, it describes exactly what it is. 'Death ray' on the other hand is a dysphemism, coined by bad journalism.

I've heard of this before.

[zero_out]

There was a news story several years ago about a fire that destroyed a family's patio, and damaged their house. The fire department couldn't figure out how it started, but then they discovered the dog's glass water bowl about ten feet from where the fire started. They tested their theory, and sure enough, the owners were filling the glass bowl with water at just the right time, and putting it in just the right place, that it magnified the afternoon sunlight into a spot that set fire to weather-treated wood boards.

Same thing happened at Walt Disney Concert Hall

[default luser]

This is hardly a unique event. If you let an architect go nuts trying to make a "modern" and "unique" building, he will inevitably build a magnifying glass.

Architects are rarely versed in function, and are almost always about the form.

Re:Same thing happened at Walt Disney Concert Hall

[theIsovist]

You've given one example, which is a building by Frank Gehry. He's an architect who made his millions by converting software made to develop jet fighters into "architecture". Is it any wonder his buildings attack people?

I am a practicing architect, so please, let me fill you in. Architects take classes on sun angles and reflected light. Understanding how to make use of and control natural sunlight is a major part of modern architecture. I counter your example with a modern building designed by Steven Holl (a much more impressive architect IMHO). If you note on one of the diagrams, the building has been designed to strategicly filter light into different areas of the school based on certain landmark days. No death rays here.

Re:Post a warning?

[vlm]

Since the building is basically parabolic, won't the spot stay mostly stationary? I mean, isn't that the whole point of parabolic focusers?

Try it some time and be surprised. Moving the sun with respect to the parabola is equivalent to moving the parabola with respect to the sun. And there is a strong microwave analogy. So, if the spot never moved, that would make radar systems rather hard to build (you'd have to use 80s era phased arrays instead of 40s era rotating dishes)

Re:Post a warning?

[smooth wombat]

Since the building is basically parabolic, won't the spot stay mostly stationary?

Obviously neither you nor the mod who gave you insightful read the article because had either of you done so, you would have read the following:

Fixing the problem isn't going to be easy. As the Earth spins, the sun moves across the horizon. But as the seasons change, the angle of the Earth to the sun changes too, meaning shadows - and in this case the hot spot - move in a different way. Putting in one row of thick umbrellas won't solve the problem because each day they would have to be a few feet back or a few feet forward from their prior day's position.

One doesn't even need a parabolic reflector to experience this. Go to any city during a clear, sunny day and you will find hot spots being created from the nice, shiny windows on the flat (non-curved) buildings. While not focused like the rays from this building, you will feel substantially warmer.

However, stand still for a few minutes, and as the Earth rotates and moves about the sun, the hot spot will move with it.

I'm not the most brilliant person when it comes to science, but even I know what you said is wrong!

Hooray!

[Anne_Nonymous]

S'mores for everyone!

Hotels in Space

[Cyclloid]

In order to circumvent the treaty to not weaponize space, the USA plans to build "Hotels" in space.

Re:Runs to Vegas

[The Archon V2.0]

with large jar of mutant ants. Ooh crap. The jar is broken. The mutant ants are free! And I, for one, welcome our new insect overlords

I TOLD you that ant farm keyboard idea wouldn't work!

This was the subject of an old sci fi short story

[pjwhite]

I remember reading a story many years ago which was probably published in the late 1950s or 1960s. It was about an architect who murdered a rival by designing and having built a skyscraper with reflective widows controlled by a computer, ostensibly to maintain the interior environment of the building, but in reality as a way to focus the light of the sun on the rival's house, some miles away. The rival and his house were destroyed by a "mysterious" fire.
I wish I could remember the name of the author and the the story title.

Re:Post a warning?

[Facegarden]

The simplest thing is to dull the reflective surfaces of the offending parts of the building. This problem isn't unique, it's happened before elsewhere.

They did that. When they designed it, they thought of this and added a film over the windows that reduces reflected energy by 70%, according to TFA.

It still manages to raise temperatures by 20-30 degrees in the affected zone, and on a 110 degree day thats enough to melt plastics and people.
-Taylor