Outdoor cooking at Gingin, Western Australia
By Judy Evans
@JudyEv (382099)
Rockingham, Australia
August 27, 2018 6:57pm CST
On our recent wildflower tour in the mid-west of Western Australia we visited the Gravity Discovery Centre near Gingin. This is a ‘hands-on’ science education, astronomy, Aboriginal culture and tourist centre which has won awards for its contribution towards the understanding of science. There are various attractions including a magnetic skateboard which was very popular with the kids at the Centre, the first southern hemisphere gravitational wave detector and the leaning tower of Gingin.
The latter is a purpose built 45 metres (148 ft) tall steel inclined tower with 222 steps to the top and held in place by 180 tons of concrete. It leans at an angle of 15 degrees. Balloons filled with water can be dropped through chutes to recreate the experiments of Galileo Galilei.
The Centre is set in an area of virgin bushland and with wildflower season now in full swing, it was a very pleasant place to fill in a few hours.
One of the exhibitions which intrigued me was an outdoor solar cooker which is widely used in Tibet or so the sign said. The whole cooker is moved to align with the sun with the most effective alignment being when the front vertical support rod falls onto the rear support rod. This causes the bright spot to fall in the centre of the circular support. The warnings included not putting hands or objects into bright parts as the temperature can apparently reach 900 degrees and only using metal handled pans.
It looks like it’s time the reflective surfaces were polished.
10 people like this
11 responses
@moffittjc (128835)
• Gainesville, Florida
28 Aug 18
When I was in high school, our science class had a project where we had to divide up into teams to build solar cookers, and then on a certain day we had a contest to see whose solar cooker worked the best. Being the genius that I am, my partner and I went tot the grocery store the night before and bought pre-cooked ribs, so instead of cooking them, all we had to do was heat them up on our solar cooker. So when we put our solar cooker into operation, our ribs were "cooked" about 45 minutes faster than the next closest team. My partner and I never told our teacher that we had cheated and bought pre-cooked meat! haha
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@JudyEv (382099)
• Rockingham, Australia
28 Aug 18
Oh Jeff!! My opinion of you has taken a big downturn. 
When Vince was in Junior Farmers (now called Rural Youth but similar to 4H), his club and the neighbouring club got together for a 'bunny bash'. Rabbits were vermin so the groups went out with spotlights and clubs to see how many rabbits they could bag. Vince's club won hands down - because they took over a heap of rabbits that they'd caught the day before. So perhaps I'd better not be too hard on you. 
When Vince was in Junior Farmers (now called Rural Youth but similar to 4H), his club and the neighbouring club got together for a 'bunny bash'. Rabbits were vermin so the groups went out with spotlights and clubs to see how many rabbits they could bag. Vince's club won hands down - because they took over a heap of rabbits that they'd caught the day before. So perhaps I'd better not be too hard on you. 1 person likes this
@moffittjc (128835)
• Gainesville, Florida
29 Aug 18
@JudyEv It was only one time I cheated like that, and that was because my partner was lazy and didn't want to do the work required.
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@JudyEv (382099)
• Rockingham, Australia
29 Aug 18
I wonder about that too. Maybe it's the heat of the metal plates at its maximum. I found a site about installing the cookers in Peru but it doesn't mention much about the heat. Here is a link about it:
https://news.byu.edu/news/sun-boils-water-when-byu-engineering-outreach-class-helps-giant-lakes-island-dwellers
1 person likes this
@arunima25 (93194)
• Bangalore, India
28 Aug 18
That seems like a good attraction for all science lovers.
I had seen solar cooker in one of the exhibitions of renewable energy. It is a good idea for countries that get good sun throughout year. But we were told that the cooking is a little slow and it is more healthy as you get good dose of Vitamin D in your food. But I had no idea of 900 degrees. 
1 person likes this
@arunima25 (93194)
• Bangalore, India
28 Aug 18
@JudyEv We tasted the vegetable rice cooked in those cookers in one of the stalls in the exhibition. It was yummy..the slow cooking made it tastier.
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@snowy22315 (208911)
• United States
30 Aug 18
The Gaileo exhibit sounds entertaining. The cooking thing looks a bit of a monstrosity actually..
.
.1 person likes this
@JudyEv (382099)
• Rockingham, Australia
30 Aug 18
I found a link to the article about them being used in Peru so they are being used.
@JudyEv (382099)
• Rockingham, Australia
29 Aug 18
The food goes in the pot and the heat from the aluminium plates heats the pot. I think that's the basics of how it works.
@JohnRoberts (109841)
• Los Angeles, California
28 Aug 18
You can could cook a lot of shrimp on that barbie.
1 person likes this
