Parabolic reflectors are pretty handy devices. Whether you’re building a microwave antenna or a long-distance directional microphone, suitable commercial dishes aren’t that hard to come by.

The dish is built from the skeleton of an umbrella-style photographer’s flash reflector; he chose this over a discount-store rain umbrella because the reflector has an actual parabolic shape.

Potatoes were fried in oil aboard a parabolic flight that simulates microgravity. See how steam bubbles react. Credit: ESA ...

Also called a "dish" or "mirror," parabolic antennas are used for satellite signals and planetary telescopes. The reflective mirror design can also emit energy such as in a flashlight or ...

We can replace the solid surface of a large dish by a set of small dishes positioned along the parabolic surface as in Figure 2. Each small dish brings radio waves to a focus and converts them to ...