Scientific perspective?

Aloha! Greetings from Sweden! I'm doing a project at school and my goal is to build a laser pointer. My teachers say its a good idea but they want me to examine the laser pointer so that the project gets a more physical and scientific perspective.

I have already considered doing a examination of how the laser light refreacts through different materials. I also thought of how much heat you can build up under a certain period of time (5mW red laser). I'm open for help and advise of any kind.

You could build a spirograph project and show how changing the speed of the 2 mirrors on motors changes the effect of the image ??

A exciting and simple scientific experiment if the difraction of light, and can be achieved easily. Look here: Diffraction - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia This effect along with its explanation/understanding is always an awesome thing to expose. Easy and deeply scientific, want more?

edit: another link here: http://phoenix.phys.clemson.edu/labs/224/laser/index.html

if you're making a low power single-mode red, you could do a simple single-slit diffraction demonstration, and then explain how this relates to diffraction gratings that you can buy. Diffraction gratings are pretty much a bunch of slits molded into a clear plastic piece.

Here's a good basis to help you get started. Props to Xplorer877.
http://laserpointerforums.com/f44/s...y-my-attempt-calculate-wavelengths-50334.html