how do you see a laser beam when the light is pointed away from you?

Question

If you bounce a laser beam off a surface at virtually 0 degrees and away from you, you will see where it hits the surface even though the light is going in the opposite direction and away from you. It would be the same as shooting a hose away from you, you dont get wet. In fact not one drop will reach you, so how can you see the laser light when not one single photon is reaching your eyes and there is no other light source around?

I said reflected off a surface no dust no smoke just the surface.

It cant reflect off atoms in the air because a. its not hitting the air its hitting a surface and b. you would see the beam all the time. Same with dust, you would see the beam and not just where it hits.
And I said no silly "it reflects of imperfections in the surface", thats mathematically impossible. do you get wet from water bouncing off imprerfections? What enables you to see an object is light being absorbed not reflected, so try thinking for a change instead quoting what you read in book somewhere. Remember that science makes more mistakes than the rest of the world combined so dont believe something just because you read it somewhere.

Tony t cant you read, I said hitting a surface just like when light hits the moon which is in a vaccum and you see the light reflected, no dust- hitting the SURFACE, you know the little dot where it hits the SURFACE. READ THE QUESTION

Answer 1

You are seeing the action of the photons being absorbed by the surface it is hitting.

No surface is 100 % reflective.

Even first surface , expensive , optically pure mirrors will absorb some of the energy . At some point, depending on the # of reflections that occur, all of the laser energy would be absorbed. That is to say if 1% of the energy is absorbed , by the 99 th bounce there would be no beam especially if the transmit media is not a pure vacuum.

Answer 2

In fact, if the surface were a perfect specular reflector, all the light would be reflected away from you and you would not see a spot on the surface. However, there is no such thing as a perfect specular reflector; all surfaces have a combination of specular and diffuse reflection. Diffuse reflection scatters light in all directions, and so you can see the illuminated surface from any angle. Diffuse reflection and light scattering are caused by imperfections and uneveness of the surface at the microscopic level, and even if the surface were perfectly smooth, there would be scattering of the light from atomic interactions.

Answer 3

It's called refraction. It's an optical property that scatters light coming from any direction. That's why you can see laser beams at all, it scatters when it hits dust, fog, or even air molecules. When it hits a surface, regardless of at what angle, the surface will refract some of that light in multiple directions including a vector aimed right at your eyes. Certain materials will refract light more or less than others, largely depending upon it's texture and other optical properties.

Answer 4

Yeah, any kind of particulates will reflect very tiny weak amounts of the light to your eyes but most of it keeps traveling. All air contains Moisture or water vapor in the air can reflect it, fog, dust, smoke, pollen and on and on. The thicker and the more particulates reflect more which makes it look brighter.

Answer 5

The energy of the laser beam agitates the particles in the medium through which the beam passes. this agitation and/or reflectance of the particles is what you see. If the beam passes through a vacuum, you will see nothing until it emerges from the vacuum and back into some sort of medium where you will once again see it.

Answer 6

when the photons hit the surface, they reflect in different directions. thereby you can see it. in other words, when the laser get far from you, you can't see it. because all photons moving in one direction, just like a line. but when them hit the surface, they scatter in different directions, due to roughness on the surface.all of surfaces have some roughness on them, even mirror. but we cannot see them by unaided eye.so some beam of photons would reach your eyes and you would see them.

Answer 7

Not ALL of the light being reflected by the surface is travelling away from your eyes, there is some scattering.

Answer 8

You could see the reflected photons from dust in the air or smoke particles in the air

Answer 9

The photons are not absorbed by the material, but instead bounce off it and some eventually hit your eyes. Not all of them, just some of them.

Answer 10

Air also bounces photons