From Math Images

Solar Dishes such as the one shown use a paraboloid shape to focus the incoming light into a single collector.

Basic Description

The geometry of a parabola makes this shape useful for such solar dishes. If the dish is facing the sun, beams of light coming from the sun are essentially parallel to each other when they hit the dish. Considering the construction of a parabola, these incoming beams would be perpendicular to the parabola's directrix. Upon hitting the surface of the dish, the beams are reflected directly towards the focus of the parabola, which is where a device to absorb the sun's energy would be located.

A More Mathematical Explanation

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Parabolic Reflector Dish
Field: Geometry
Created By: Energy Information Administration