sunlight
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Background: In temperate latitudes, people frequently heat their homes in winter and cool their homes in summer. The Issue: The main source of heat is the Sun. So in the hot summer, a homeowner would want their roof & sun-facing walls to be reflective. But in the winter, they’d want the opposite—the roof should ideally…
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Background: Recently, there has been discussion around the futuristic concept of “vertical farming”: growing crops in skyscraper-style greenhouses in city centers. The issue: Although there are many conceptual advantages to such a farm, there is at least one major difficulty: light. Obviously, only the topmost layer of a vertical farm would be practical to light…
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The issue: Using a cell phone outdoors can present two main problems, as shown in Figure 1. Specifically, you may be far from a tower (and thus, get poor reception) and the harsh light of the noon sun may make it very difficult to read the text on your phone, especially with the recently-popularized “dark…
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Background: Car sun visors are useful for avoiding glare while driving. But they require constant adjustment on winding roads, and they don’t work at all if the sun is too low in the sky (e.g. sunrise, sunset conditions). Proposal: Instead of having a sun visor, what if the sun was blocked by an “eclipse disc,”…
WorstPlans: updated every Monday since July 2014! 