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ArcticMyst Security by Avery

A fun little laser-related experiment.

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Feb 7, 2009
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Here's a fun little experiment you can try.

You'll need;

A laser powerful enough to burn, preferably focusable, with a decent duty cycle.

A small clear plastic or glass box or other enclosure (Must be relatively air-tight. A pop bottle or over-turned glass ware on a table might work.)

A material to burn that produces good amounts of smoke (I used black leather.)

Safety glasses recommended, of course.

Set-up is simple. Place the material to be burned in you chosen enclosure, and burn it with the laser. Now watch as the smoke follows the shifting air currents. This works best if the smoke only has to rise a few inches. As the air heats up, you'll see an interesting demonstration of convection. You also might try burning different materials to see if the smoke reacts differently.

BONUS - Now that you have a box of smoke, you can play with your beam. Try shining it at different angles to see what effects you get. Play around with the focus. Break out the diffraction gratings. Get Creative!
 
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A clear soda bottle will never melt with a visible laser. You just show your ignorance over and over...
 
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I'm pretty sure that there's a laser that could melt a thin plastic bottle.

-CAM

There are a lot of lasers that can melt clear plastic, but most hobbyists don't have them lying about to mess around with.
 
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lol, reported for harassment. That's funny.

What for? Trying to teach you?
 
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Play nice ya'll-- somebody(ies) didnt get thier nap today-- so to NOT change the subject----

Popping a black balloon that is inside of a clear balloon always impresses- like the clear soda bottle it wont get that hot.

BTW DWNload this -

http://laserpointerforums.com/f48/video-fun-w-510ma-lcc-48835.html-

very cool to see in person-I know 'cause GreenM showed me during a recent visit. Lucky me! Hak
 
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I noticed while trying a smoke in a bottle thing to view my beam, that sometimes the 'stream' of smoke went directly to the side, but wasn't going out of the bottle, it would go to the side, then hit the wall and bouce off the wall. It only did it on a few occassions, it'd go then get weak and stop. pretty cool too. Now I have a project where I'm taking like 24 plastic bottles, cutting the bottoms off, and making a smoke tunnel. It'd be cool if I weren't too lazy to spend a whole weekend and 5 sticks of hot glue just to do it...Ugh...in a couple weeks I'll be outa school, so I'll pretty much HAVE to :crackup:
 
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I don't believe I specified further. A comment about me being ignorant because I said a plastic bottle can melt is just... just... indescribable. Reported for harassment.

-CAM

And Prototype did not even make the origional comment.... :na: you sir need to CHILL OUT :tinfoil: hope I am not harassing you too much...:na:
 
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cam we all get off on the wrong foot... post one good experiemnt or laser review with pix and all will be forgotten. (ps... neg repping.... is negative you should have known)


michael
 
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I noticed while trying a smoke in a bottle thing to view my beam, that sometimes the 'stream' of smoke went directly to the side, but wasn't going out of the bottle, it would go to the side, then hit the wall and bouce off the wall. It only did it on a few occassions, it'd go then get weak and stop. pretty cool too. Now I have a project where I'm taking like 24 plastic bottles, cutting the bottoms off, and making a smoke tunnel. It'd be cool if I weren't too lazy to spend a whole weekend and 5 sticks of hot glue just to do it...Ugh...in a couple weeks I'll be outa school, so I'll pretty much HAVE to :crackup:

Screw hot glue. Clear packing tape FTW.
 
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A clear soda bottle will never melt with a visible laser. You just show your ignorance over and over...

Interesting enoungh, a focussed blu-ray laser can easily burn a hole in clear vinyl tubing! Not all plastics will react transparently to this wavelength. Some end up absorbing it.
 




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