Anyone have a green laser?

[Tefal]

Whats with all the criticism? Arrows are dangerous too but I bet there wouldn't be people complaining over someone doing archery.

People don't fire arrows indiscriminately into the sky/at random hills /buildings.

Arrows also don't reflect off surfaces and then blind/wound etc in a fraction of a second.

By the time you realized you'd accidentally turned on the laser someone could have quite serious eye damage.

 

[Toker]

archery is a sport though, and legal to use. Crossbows are basicaly higher power bows and arrows, because they are higher power, they are compleatly illegal in the UK, and have no legit reason to be used.

High powered lasers are closer to crossbows, being illegal, then bows/arrows.

...crossbows are legal, I have one

 

[Dist]

...crossbows are legal, I have one

my mistake, was reading further into the government site and noticed it has age limits on crossbows, as well as power limits. So as long as its not too powerfull and your over 18, its legal.

 

[ryder]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/34229.stm

 

[JIM_BOB7813]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/34229.stm

The article is from 1997, and probably is not talking about 50-100mW lasers, which were probably not as freely available.

 

[bennyB]

The biological effects of such particles or energy-packets are totally irrelevant to a physicist.

Sorry but I have to disagree with this, I found completely the opposite during my physics degree. In my laser technology course we often looked at laser applications, specifically medical applications, where we are very interested in interaction of radiation with tissue. e.g why specific types of laser are used, what frequencies are used etc.

Further more I think biology and physics do benefit from each other, the field of Biophysics (researched in physics departments) relies on the contribution of both subjects in equal measure.

To the op, green lasers are interesting from a physics point of view because of the non-linear optics involved. Although personally I would never buy one, I think they can be dangerous especially at the powers mentioned in the link.

 

[shimy182]

You can make one that pops balloon from the lenzed LED inside any dvd rw burner.
thers a video tutorial of it somewhere.

EDIT: here it is
http://www.metacafe.com/watch/756433/laser_flashlight_hack/

 

[Sinque]

I would only ever contemplate to buy any kind of laser if it was club lighting. Anything else is just a waste

 

[Gaygle]

my 35mw one could pop ballons at 10 feet but this should be a beast, it can also engrave on leather

it can only blind if it hit the cornea directly and for more than a fraction of a second and on top of that it needs to be close up

If it can pop balloons at 10ft, as you claim, i doubt it is going to have much trouble destroying your eye...

 

[Lopéz]

I've never understood the appeal of a super powered laser pointer. What do you actually do with it?

Why not just buy a torch if you want to shine a light at some trees?

 

[Azagoth]

I think the OP's Mother may have dropped them on their head as child once too often.

 

[jpmonkey69]

From my mates club night. That green laser was ace, you could hook it up to a PC and make it draw animations on a mesh screen so it looked like they were floating.

You're able to set a timer to not project in one space for more than a certain amount of time. It was hella hot, and you could light cigarettes on it when you were next to it.

That's a proper laser... not one of those silly pen ones!