Editing Solar cooker (section)

=== Spherical reflectors ===
[[File:Auroville Solar Bowl.JPG|thumb|left|The Solar Bowl in [[Auroville]], India]]

Spherical reflectors operate much like paraboloidal reflectors, such that the axis of symmetry is pointed towards the Sun so that sunlight is concentrated to a focus.  However, the focus of a spherical reflector will not be a point focus because it suffers from a phenomenon known as [[spherical aberration]].  Some concentrating dishes (such as satellite dishes) that do not require a precise focus opt for a spherical curvature over a paraboloid. If the radius of the rim of spherical reflector is small compared with the radius of curvature of its surface (the radius of the sphere of which the reflector is a part), the reflector approximates a paraboloidal one with focal length equal to half of the radius of curvature.<ref>See [[Parabola#Focal length and radius of curvature at the vertex]]</ref>
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