what is a laser?

Question

what's the difference between a light bulb and a laser? how do lasers do damage? how is it that light does damage?

Answer 1

A laser is more than just a concentrated beam of light; it is a coherent beam of light. Light consists of waves eminating from a source (it can also be said to consist of particles called photons, but wave/particle duality is another discussion). Normally, light waves from an ordinary source act like the waves generated when you splash around in a pool - they go in every direction, and the crests and troughs of the waves overlap in such a way that they cancel each other out when you average them. For a laser, the crests and troughs line up; when that happens, the crests get really high and the troughs get really low. In other words, the amplitude of the added waves gets much bigger than the amplitude of the individual waves.

So, what is it that's really making the waves when you talk about light? The waves of light consist of electric fields, along with the magnetic fields that they generate. That's why light is referred to as "electromagnetic radiation", along with radio wave, x-rays, and a bunch of others. So, when the light from a laser makes aligned waves that add up to really really big waves, what's actually happening is that it's generating really big electric fields. The electrtic fields interact with the electrons in the target materials that aborb them, heating them up. The fields generated by really powerful lasers are big enough to rip the electrons off of the atoms that absorb them, causing the material to fall apart and vaporize.

Answer 2

LASER is an acronym for the Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation. It involves the process of creating a lot of light all at the same frequency.
Light coming from a laser is all at the same frequency, rather than being a collection of light at many different frequencies like a light bulb.
Lasers do damage the same way that all light does. When the sun gives you a sunburn, it is because your skin absorbs the energy of the light (or UV). Rather, the molecules absorb the light and go into higher energy states. This heats your skin, and it burns. Lasers happen to do more damage because their energy is more concentrated.

Answer 3

A LASER (acronym for Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation) is an optical source that emits photons in a coherent beam. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laser

Laser light is concentrated into a beam. A light bulb spreads the light around. Most lasers don't do any damage (like a presentation laser pointer) but with sufficient power, a laser can concentrate enough heat to burn.

Answer 4

A laser has coherent light, i.e. all of the rays are in the same direction. A light bulb emits rays in all direction. Lasers do damage when they are powerful enough, a bit like you can burn wood by focusing light with a lens, except for a laser the focus point is anywhere along its path.

LASER = light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation

Answer 5

Laser stands for Light Amplification through the Stimmulated Emission of Radiation.

Radiative light, such as a light bulb, spreads around; lasers are coherent light and they flow in a line. The photons smash into molecules in front of them, and add enough energy for the molecules to break apart- or vaporize. Lilke tiny jackhammers the photons hammer away at whatever is in front of them. This effect is viewed with normal light if the viewer looks into the quantum levels.

Answer 6

Laser works on a principal of light power amplification!

As the electrons gain energy they go to a higher orbit and when they give up energy they are moving towards a lower orbit. When electrons jump to a lower orbit they emit a photon of light.

A laser works like a capacitor accumulating the energy and then suddenly discharging it.

The major trick is in producing a lasing effect is to allow most electrons to jump from an exited state to a lower orbit and thus releasing all that energy at once. .


A laser works like a capasitor accumulating th eenergy and then su=ddenly discharging it.

The major trick is in produsing a lasing effect to allow most electrons to jump from an exited state to an orbit lower.

Answer 7

A laser is highly, highly, highly concentrated light, focused into one beam. A lightbulb spreads light in every direction. All light has energy, if you've felt a lightbulb that's been on for a while it's pretty hot, isn't it? Multiply it by about a thousand, and put it all in one spot, that's the destructive heat energy of a laser.

Answer 8

when we heat a material ,we give energy to the electrons and they become unstable and jump upper orbitals but they return to initional orbit and give up this energy . laser is an acronym .