If you want to technically tackle the concept of LASER, the first thing you should probably learn is that LASER is an acronym and expands to Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation. But for a layman, a LASER device is just another light source with a special property. It can be channeled in a single straight line and is visible from a longer distance, whereas normal light sources simply fade into convex beams.
Now, as the book “LASER: Light of a million uses” correctly points out, the uses of a LASER light source are abundant, but why buy it? You may have seen teachers hanging up a pen during presentations and using it to point to screens. Well that is the simplest form of a LASER light and is commonly used as a pointing device in presentations and slide shows. It doesn’t matter if you use red LASER or green LASER as long as it serves its purpose. With the pollution rate due to fireworks, it would be nice to have a LASER light screen instead of smoke and fire across the sky on July 4th or Guy Fawkes Day. If you are an arsonist, you can even choose to use LASER to light things like paper, cardboard boxes, cotton, and matches. Use your creativity to light a cigarette or a Cuban cigar if you are a smoker.
In glass cutting industries, they are used to cut glass with impressive precision and accuracy. This has recently been extrapolated to many other industries. If you are under construction, this can even be used to measure distances and depths of structures. Its practical application in science extends to the fields of biology, spectroscopy, and chemistry. A regular camper might consider using LASER beams to scare off wild animals. Unless you are a soldier, you would not carry a high power LASER beam generator of more than 1W of power because it becomes a potential weapon. Battlefields often have a lot to do with LASER, where they are used as weapons and beacons.
While you don’t have to be a scientist, a little scientific knowledge would help you understand how LASER is generated. The term expansion gives a very succinct description of how a LASER beam is created. Let’s go back to the basics of the subject; As you know, all matter is made up of molecules that in turn are made up of tiny particles called atoms. An atom has a central nucleus made of protons and neutrons; Small negatively charged particles called electrons circulate through the nucleus in a manner similar to that of the sun and the planets of the solar system. This is just a description of the balanced state of an atom. Consider that the atom is heated or given some energy in some way; This causes the electrons in its orbit to go into an excited state, resulting in the formation of an excited atom. If you extrapolate this concept to an object that contains millions of atoms, you have a myriad of atoms in its excited state. But how is the red light beam generated? The answer is simple: the tendency of atoms to return to their equilibrium state results in the creation of a bundle of light energy called a photon. It goes something like this: someone gives you money, you get very excited and then you decide that you were better off when you had no money and you throw it into a lake, except there are a million people like you throwing all their money into a lake. In this way, when all the photons come together and travel in one direction, a LASER beam is formed.
It doesn’t take much to be wowed by the tiny LASER sources. The interesting applications it has attracts people from all walks of life: teachers, architects, engineers and builders, security forces and even children. Why? If you have to ask why, it simply means that you do not know LASER. What could be cooler than having a LASER light source in hand? You can have light shows in different colors and have a lot of fun showing them at your neighbor’s house as he struggles to understand where the source of the little red dot is located. You can even stand out from the crowd of smokers by lighting your cigarette with a LASER light while people are using alcohol lighters.
There are different types of LASER pointers on the market and their size and structure completely depend on the application for which they are to be used. For example, teachers often use the smaller indicators during presentations. Combination lasers can be used in LED flashlights and even disco lights. If you are a clubber, you will have seen red, green and blue lights coming out of the ground for special effects while dancing in the clubs. They are dual or combined lasers. Have you seen red dots appear on a person’s chest or forehead in movies when they are being attacked by SWAT team or other special forces? Well, they are LASER weapons sights.
If you own a LASER pointer, you probably would have pointed it at the sky and checked if you can see how far it goes. A small pointer LASER would probably not even be visible, whereas a larger light source could extend a certain distance; the only determinant of the brightness and distance a LASER beam shines is the power of the beam. LASER pointers can range from 5 mW to 300 mW; they are available to the general public. Attempts to purchase higher horsepower capacity beams require you to obtain certified documents stating the reason for the purchase. Of course, the higher power LASERs are expensive. The more powerful the cool gadgets, the more questions about the danger they pose and the legal issues that go with it. Unless you are a doctor who performs LASER eye surgery, you do not want to shine your LASER beam directly into a person’s eyes; this could cause permanent damage and even blindness. Shine a LASER of mediocre power at a single point for too long and you will notice the target getting hot. Shining a beam of higher power directly onto the skin could cause heat burns and boils. This brings us to the next question of whether it is legal; the answer lies in how you use these rays. You could be arrested for shining LASER beams on airplanes and ships; The list has recently been added with “soccer matches” when a fan chose to shine a LASER directly on the ground, affecting the course of the game.
If these things just surprise you and you are just looking to own one of these beauties, eBay or any of these auction sites would be a good option for you. They come really cheap; However, the problem is that you will not get the product in the advertisement. So if you are a person who can distinguish between a 5mW beam and a 20mW beam, look elsewhere; if you don’t, use auction websites. Let’s say you are a professor looking to acquire a LASER source for a spectroscopy experiment; in this case, stay away from eBay. Instead, browse the many online forums that have LASER pointers as their central topic. K-mart, Wal-Mart, and Target are good places to start, while you can also visit specialty store websites online to order your ray.
