Neil
halowall sunlight trial 1
Initial prototype for HaloWall, testing different types of glass beads.
Look at the upper-right hand quadrant and you'll see there's part of a rainbow, the arc's center at the camera. However, unlike a rainbow formed by water droplets, this one is formed by glass spheres, so the curvature is much tighter. Then just imagine that effect extended to an 8' high x 24' across wall, so you see the entire circle of the rainbow.
Here's an example of the full circle, captured by legendary MIT physics prof Walter Lewin. And see here for the science.
Walter Lewin and his TA's built a demo of this for their introductory physics class, but as far as I know nobody's ever tried to make a really large scale version, let alone one that will work in the outdoors and in the desert.
halowall sunlight trial 1
Initial prototype for HaloWall, testing different types of glass beads.
Look at the upper-right hand quadrant and you'll see there's part of a rainbow, the arc's center at the camera. However, unlike a rainbow formed by water droplets, this one is formed by glass spheres, so the curvature is much tighter. Then just imagine that effect extended to an 8' high x 24' across wall, so you see the entire circle of the rainbow.
Here's an example of the full circle, captured by legendary MIT physics prof Walter Lewin. And see here for the science.
Walter Lewin and his TA's built a demo of this for their introductory physics class, but as far as I know nobody's ever tried to make a really large scale version, let alone one that will work in the outdoors and in the desert.