Home Rooftop Solar Power System Update - Shattered Panel!

[zapta]

Any similar pattern here?

https://www.google.com/search?q=solar+panel+glass+broken&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjE3ZDK9sjJAhWDt4MKHVCTA4IQ_AUIBygB&biw=1308&bih=646#tbm=isch&q=solar+panel+broken&imgrc=7lhd1wuiK1aSeM%3A

[DrGeoff]

I get what a cricket ball is.  My point was that if that was what it was, it couldn't have come from very far away.  That side of his house doesn't look like it faces the street.  Since you essentially know the direction, and you (probably) know who your neighbors are in that direction, what is the likelihood that one of those neighbors is a dick or has dick kids.

If we are talking golf balls, the average golf drive is 200 yards (182m) so look for dick neighbors that far out.

A lot of high school kids are finished now and roaming about. It does not have to be a neighbour, just some kids wandering around the streets.

[Cyberdragon]

My bet is on a golf ball. I am waiting for another episode of Myth Busters, "can golf ball do that?"

I think Mythbusters got cancelled. Do they even play much golf in Australia?

[Brumby]

Yes, golf is a popular sport here in Australia.  I don't know the actual figures, but the impression I get is that it is something similar to that of the USA, probably a bit less.

Errant golf balls aren't common, but you can't rule out an idiot with no conscience.

[Brumby]

My bet is on a golf ball. I am waiting for another episode of Myth Busters, "can golf ball do that?" Dave still have enough panels to test all plausible theories:

Here is the Poll:
ice - 0 votes
golf ball - 1 vote
baseball/cricket ball - 0
meteorite (hard to simulate?) - 0 votes
birds - 0 votes

Put me down for a cricket ball.

... and if it is a cricket ball that did the damage, I would be looking within a 100m radius.  Considering the symmetry of the damage, I agree with others that the trajectory will have been around the perpendicular.  To do that and have the necessary velocity, would mean a solid whack and a skied skyed ball.

[pickle9000]

I say it's a dragonball because they can disappear.

[Smokey]

So the cricket ball was hit from the grassy knoll and made of ice so there was no cricket ball evidence left over?  Are you sure it wasn't the Cubans?  When is the Oliver Stone move coming out?
 

[DimitriP]

The ripples don't look perfectly concentric. I think that's a clue as to the object's direction. 

[Ian.M]

The roof is sloped, which if we assume an impact that was closer to being perpendicular to the surface than to being glancing, offsets the possible origin zone.  Probably within 50m the other side of the house and maybe 150m that side.

[Psi]

I wonder if the object might have bounced and then rolled under the panel.
Might be worth a look under it

[LabSpokane]

I'm glad it wasn't anything as simple as some kid chucking a rock at a piece of glass to see if it would break.

Because what really happened is the panel was damaged by falling debris from a test of my homemade anti-satellite weapon.  If you find any chunks of titanium with Chinese writing on them, just keep it our little secret, OK?

[pickle9000]

I'm glad it wasn't anything as simple as some kid chucking a rock at a piece of glass to see if it would break.

Because what really happened is the panel was damaged by falling debris from a test of my homemade anti-satellite weapon.  If you find any chunks of titanium with Chinese writing on them, just keep it our little secret, OK?

Awesome, best one so far. Honorable mention to Smokey, Cubans = Awesome.

[marber]

I think Batteriser's shipment of Fail has arrived... ;-) The EE equivalent of a dead horse head perhaps?

[GNU_Ninja]

Interesting stuff ... http://etheses.bham.ac.uk/4263/1/Chen-X13PhD.pdf

Forensic fracture analysis: https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/grants/241445.pdf

My moneys on a cricket ball 

[Muttley Snickers]

Skylab.....

Although a big pain in the arse having  a panel smashed it's probably better for that to have occurred rather than whatever caused the impact breaking a roof tile and causing flooding to part of the house during the next severe rain storm, could have happened I suppose, it got close anyhow.

[VK3DRB]

Looks like a misplaced cricket ball or golf ball landed on your roof.

Remember LG = Lucky if it Goes

LG = Lucky Goldstar. That is their real name. The same makers of the crappy Goldstar video recorders and a host of other low end (or "no" end) rubbish dumped into places like K-Mart, and with some models, no spare parts available from anywhere. Even Goldstar's component placement machines were toys compared to the beautifully engineered Japanese workhorses, like Juki.

Sorry to disappoint, but Dave's Lucky Goldstar panels are low end.

Goldstar is synonymous with crap.

[DenzilPenberthy]

I'm going to put in another vote for a cricket ball fired from the grassy knoll next-door. I'm sure it wasn't done on purpose but I remember as a kid if you smash someone's greenhouse with a ball you crap your pants, hide the ball and say you were playing indoors all day

[Ian.M]

It would be interesting to know the maximum hail stone size that the panel is rated to withstand.   The density of ice is 0.9340 g/ml and of a golf ball is about 1.15 g/mL.   A  golf ball is 42.7 mm diameter, weighs less than 45.93g i.e less than a 46mm diameter sphere of ice and at terminal velocity should not be capable of breaking a panel that can withstand 46mm hail stones. 

As large hailstones are not uncommon in the Sidney area, I would argue that any panel designed for unprotected outdoor installation that cannot withstand a 50mm hailstone at terminal velocity is not of merchantable quality.

http://www.bom.gov.au/nsw/sevwx/hailfact.shtml

[zapta]

My money's on a cricket ball. 

It was causes by climate change.

[jancumps]

Lightning?

[nixfu]

Obviously giant aussie spider related damage.

[Wytnucls]

Does a soprano live next door?

[GNU_Ninja]

Does a soprano live next door?

I think Dave might have noticed 

[zapta]

Does a soprano live next door?

... or a uBeam lab?

[warp_foo]

My bet is on a golf ball. I am waiting for another episode of Myth Busters, "can golf ball do that?"

I think Mythbusters got cancelled. Do they even play much golf in Australia?

There will be one final season in 2016. 8 or 10 episodes, I think.

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