History Main / SolarPoweredMagnifyingGlass

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* In ''Literature/CodexAlera'', a group of Knights Aeris — windcrafters who can manipulate air for flight or as a lens, among other things — under orders of main character Tavi work together to create a ''quarter-mile wide'' magnifying glass that focuses its light down to another windcrafter who redirects it as a solar-powered DeathRay.

* Used for a BaitAndSwitch in the {{drabble}} ''Research Project 12B'' by Richard Cassidy, in which an apparent MadScientist TestedOnHumans plot turns out to be a sadistic kid with a magnifying glass frying ants.

* ''Literature/XWingSeries'': Occurs in ''Wedge's Gamble''. As part of a lunatic plan to take down the city-planet Coruscant's orbital shields, thus rendering it vulnerable to invasion, the Rogues require a massive thunderstorm (to take out the power grid). To get one, they settle on vaporizing all the water in a reservoir by redirecting and refocusing an orbital satellite. Used as intended, the satellite focuses sunlight on portions of Imperial City to make the temperature more livable. Used as unintended, it vaporizes the target — reservoir and all — in a matter of seconds.

* This accidentally happens in the Dunphy house in ''Series/ModernFamily'' when a see-through Christmas ornament ball is placed in direct sunlight—which causes it to burn a small hole in the couch, which the parents mistake for a cigarette burn and prompts their attempts to ground or at least discipline their children for supposedly smoking. (For an ornament to focus the light like that, however, it would have to be solid, and thus pretty heavy.)

* In an episode of the ''Series/Shazam1974'' live-action TV series, Captain Marvel creates a lens out of sand by rubbing the sand very fast, in order to focus the sun on something.

* In ''VideoGame/TheNewOrderLastDaysOfEurope'', a Nazi Germany led by Göring can try to build the Sun Gun (see Real Life) as part of their plans to fight the entire world. Not only does it fail, it will eventually fall -- [[ColonyDrop and could be the event that kills Oskar Dirlewanger]].

* In ''Literature/BodaciousSpacePirates'', the ''Odette II'' is being fired upon by a pirate ship using optical targeting. Marika reconfigures the solar sails to reflect Tau Ceti's sunlight directly onto the pirate ship, blinding their spotter and heating the hull. She stops just short of melting the ship.

* ''Manga/DrStone'' features possibly the most badass instance of this trope during the TournamentArc. Chrome ends up faced off against [[JerkJock Magma]] and has no hope of winning in a straight fight, so he uses a pair of glasses that were left on the arena floor to try and light Magma's clothes on fire. It takes a ''massive'' string of contrivances to work -- since eyeglass lenses are concave, Chrome has to fill them with his own sweat and tears to create a convex lens, then hold absolutely still to keep from disturbing the surface of the water. Likewise Magma needs to be held in place for 60 seconds, so [[ConsummateLiar Gen]] claims that he cast a spell that will make Magma's heart explode if he moves a muscle, adding that he can only maintain the spell for one minute. [[DeconReconSwitch The plan works perfectly]] because Magma buys the bluff completely and because [[{{Determinator}} Chrome's dedication]] to [[ThePowerOfLove saving the woman he loves]] allows him to stay stock-still and keep the water "lens" from breaking.
** There is also a traditional example, from a flashback featuring Senku doing this as a child.

* A filler villain in ''Anime/{{Naruto}}'' had the ability to create a giant lens to fry people with.
* ''Manga/{{Nichijou}}''; in one scene, Mai and Mio ask Yuuko if they can borrow her eraser. Yuuko has them guess which hand she has the eraser in, and after a few missteps Mai pulls out a magnifying glass to burn the back of Yuuko's hand, which she promptly declares as cheating.
* The spell [[MeaningfulName Megiddo]] from ''Literature/ThatTimeIGotReincarnatedAsASlime'' is a BeamSpam version of this trope. [[TheHero Rimuru]] used countless water elementals to focus and refract light into a multitude of lethal beams that were capable of [[GoodIsNotSoft decimating an entire army]] with LudicrousPrecision.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheAntBully'' hides from some of those.

-->'''Simon''': HOT! HOT! HOT! ''(limps around the beach and jumps into the ocean, then sighs in relief)'' Ah...

* ''Film/DieAnotherDay's'' KillSat was essentially this, being one large mirror with a center focusing array to concentrate the light into a single, extremely hot beam.

!!!'''By Author:'''
* Creator/JulesVerne was big on this.
** Dr. Clawbonnie used a lens made of ice to start a fire in ''Literature/TheAdventuresOfCaptainHatteras''.
** Cyrus Smith [=McGyvered=] a water-filled lens from two watch glasses in ''Literature/TheMysteriousIsland'', as the castaways initially had no other means of starting the fire.
!!!'''By Work:'''

* ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'': In ''Literature/SmallGods'', the Omnian fleet that attacks Ephebe is set ablaze by the rays from a massive mirror in a tower in the harbor. This is a direct reference to the ancient legend of Archimedes' "heat ray" in the siege of Syracuse.

* Mentioned in ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles'' in ''Literature/{{Changes}}'', with rays of sunlight hot enough to melt metal.

* In the Creator/StephenKing short story ''[[Literature/TheBazaarOfBadDreams Mile 81]]'', Pete Simmons uses this to set fire to the human eating monster car, effectively driving it off.

* Used for a BaitAndSwitch in the {{drabble}} ''Research Project 12B'' by Richard Cassidy in which an apparent MadScientist TestedOnHumans plot turns out to be a sadistic kid with a magnifying glass frying ants.

* In the short story "A Slight Case of Sunstroke" by Creator/ArthurCClarke a soccer crazy Central American country loses to a hated rival which bribed the referee. They get revenge when the home crowd fans suddenly focus their metal-backed programmes on the referee, who is incinerated from the reflected sunlight.
* ''Franchise/StarWarsLegends'': Occurs in ''[[Literature/XWingSeries Wedge's Gamble]]''. As part of a lunatic plan to take down the city-planet Coruscant's orbital shields, thus rendering it vulnerable to invasion, the Rogues require a massive thunderstorm (to take out the power grid). To get one, they settle on vaporizing all the water in a reservoir by redirecting and refocusing an orbital satellite. Used as intended, the satellite focuses sunlight on portions of Imperial City to make the temperature more livable. Used as unintended, it vaporizes the target — reservoir and all — in a matter of seconds.
* Using a magnifying glass to kill ants is listed as one of the misdeeds of Bruno the SpoiledBrat in ''Literature/TheWitches''.

* In ''VideoGame/TheNewOrderLastDaysOfEurope'', a Nazi Germany led by Göring can try to build the Sun Gun (see Real Life) as part of their plans to fight the entire world. Not only does it fail, it will eventually fall - [[ColonyDrop and could be the event that kills Oskar Dirlewanger]].

[[folder:Web Original]]
* After Creator/GeorgeLucas reveals his plan to destroy all the original VHS copies of ''Franchise/StarWars'' in ''WebVideo/HalfInTheBag'', a montage of him doing just that is shown, with one part featuring this.
* On ''WebVideo/SevenSecondRiddles'', a few riddles involve characters surviving a deserted island by making fire with their glasses, or in one case, with a camera lens.

* In ''WesternAnimation/AdventuresOfTheGummiBears'', one of [[LostTechnology the ancient inventions built by their ancestors]] was [[EveryoneKnowsMorse a signal machine]] called the Gummiscope, which was also capable of generating a devastating beam that could burn practically anything. While the Gummis tried to use it to contact the Great Gummis overseas, Igthorn intended to use it to conqueror Dunwyn. Knowing that [[NoManShouldHaveThisPower the scope was too powerful for anyone to be in control of]], the Gummis destroy it by tearing out its supports with a flood.
* In an ''WesternAnimation/AdventureTime'' AdBumper, Ice King is trying to burn a giant ant. He then aims the magnifying glass at Finn, yelling, "You want some of this?"
* The beginning of ''WesternAnimation/TheAngryBeavers'' episode "Homer Loners" has Daggett try to burn some ants with a magnifying glass; the ants just hold up their own tiny mirror and reflect the sun beam back at Daggett, [[AshFace burning him to a crisp.]]
* On the ''WesternAnimation/BobsBurgers'' episode "Wag the Song", Jimmy Pesto installs a metal awning on his restaurant, which concentrates sunlight into Bob's Burgers, making it too hot inside. Out of desperation, Bob tries to do the same to Pesto with a small mirror.

* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'' episode "[[Recap/FuturamaS4E8CrimesOfTheHot Crimes of the Hot]]", Prof. Wernstrom's plan to stop global warming is a giant mirror that reflects excess light away from the Earth. Then a small piece of space debris knocks it askew, and a beam of concentrated light slices through the city.
* In ''WesternAnimation/GoofTroop'' episode "Gunfight at the Okie-Dokie Corral", when Max is forced to wear glasses, Goofy tells the story of his cowboy ancestor, who defeated a gunslinger[[note]]resembling Pete[[/note]] by wearing glasses, mostly because the sunlight shined through them and set off the gunslinger's belt of bullets. After the story, Max is starting to feel better about wearing glasses when the sun comes out and shines through them, causing him to practically weaponize them, to Goofy's panic.

** In the pilot "Meet the Reaper", Mandy uses a magnifying glass to melt Billy's plastic army men.
** She does it again in "Toys Will Be Toys", this time to torch a shrunken Billy and his living Dinobonoid toys (both the result of Grim's magic).
--->'''Billy:''' Mandy, what are you doing?! It's me, Billy!
--->'''Mandy:''' I know. But when will I get a chance like this again?

* In several episodes of ''WesternAnimation/InspectorGadget'', Dr. Claw and M.A.D employee weapons of this nature:
** In "The Emerald Duck", Dr. Claw sought to claim a powerful crystal-weapon that could convert sunlight into deadly beams of destruction. [[NoManShouldHaveThisPower To ensure he didn't get his hands on it]], Penny and Brain overloaded it with Penny's laser, causing it to explode.
** In another episode, M.A.D agents abducted astrophysicists and tricked them into building a heat cannon which they intended to use to blast the Tower of London and force London to pay Dr. Claw's demands. Fortunately, Penny managed to cause it to collapse before it could fire.
** One episode features a computer-controlled space station with a giant magnifying lens which was meant to be used to evaporate all the water on Earth, until the Hal-like computer which was in control decided to destroy the lens to prevent it from being used for its evil purpose.
* The title character of ''WesternAnimation/JohnnyBravo'' does this in one episode; however, his real goal was to use the light from the ants to burn a hole in the sun.

* In ''WesternAnimation/ThePerilsOfPenelopePitstop'' episode "Hair-Raising Harness Race", while Penelope is trapped in a shed filled with explosives, the Hooded Claw has the Ant Hill Mob bound with a rope and hanging from a tree limb. A magnifying glass is set so that the sun's rays will burn the rope and send the mob plummeting into a deep chasm.
* In ''WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls'' episode "Bubblevision", the girls have to deal with a giant ant, which their heat vision doesn't even hurt it. When Bubbles, who has been given NerdGlasses to correct her vison, tries to help, the lenses concentrate her eye beams so much they obliterate the ant. The animation shows the beams getting ''wider'' to make it look more impressive, even though that would mean the glasses would be scattering the light.
* ''WesternAnimation/RobotChicken''

** "Marge vs. the Monorail": After it all, we hear a voiceover from Marge.

** At the start of "Bart of Darkness", [[ButtMonkey Hans Moleman's]] coke-bottle glasses accidentally set his shirt on fire when he steps outside on a hot summer's day.

** Subverted in "Das Bus", when the children are stranded on an island. Nelson takes Milhouse's glasses to use for starting a campfire, suggesting this trope. He raises them up to the sun for a brief moment, [[BaitAndSwitch before bashing a piece of flint against them]]. To Nelson's credit, it works.
* In ''WesternAnimation/TheSmurfs'' episode "The Smurf Fire Brigade", Papa Smurf accidentally leaves his magnifying glass on the table outside before going into his house to take a nap. The magnifying glass focuses the sun's rays to start burning a spot onto the table until eventually the whole top of the table catches on fire. Lazy smells smoke and realizes he's in a dangerous spot, so he crawls out and yells fire, catching the attention of Papa Smurf and all the other Smurfs. Quickly a Smurf brings a bucket of water to the table to put out the fire, making all the Smurfs cheer.
* ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsResistance'': In [[Recap/StarWarsResistanceS1E12DangerousBusiness "Dangerous Business"]], Kaz, trapped in a cargo crate that is about to be dropped into the ocean, uses a lens to focus the beam of a welding torch to make it powerful enough to cut through the door.

** Ants infest Pimapotew Kinosewak's tree house in "[[Recap/TotalDramaThisIsThePits This Is the Pits!]]" Max, being only a small-minded villain, turns a magnifying glass on them and burns several to death before his own bed catches fire. Somehow, he thinks it's the ants that put his sheets aflame.

* Hermann Oberth, working for [[ThoseWackyNazis Nazi Germany]], proposed a wunderwaffen known as the Sonnengehwer ("Sun Gun") - a [[KillSat gigantic orbital reflector array]] made of metallic sodium that would be used to incinerate enemy cities. Obviously, it never got off the ground.

** One episode features a computer-controlled space station with a giant magnifying lens which was used as a weapon until the Hal-like computer which was in control decided to destroy the lens to prevent it from being used for evil.

* Alice, being a specialist in light magic, uses a spell to this effect in ''Literature/TheMagicians''. It's not very practical, however -- she was using it not long before sunset, and, after nothing the "lens" was a mile long, it still took her quite a long time just to burn through a door.

* One of ThoseWackyNazis' insane wunderwaffen projects was a contrivance known as the Sonnengehwer ("Sun Gun"), a [[KillSat gigantic orbital reflector array]] made of metallic sodium that would be used to incinerate enemy cities. Obviously, it never got off the ground.