Fun Experiments?

[mrbubl3s]

Pretty much all I've done with my lasers so far is point them outside at night, mostly because my glasses aren't coming until Tuesday... But anyways, when I get my glasses what are some fun experiments I can try?

 

[rpaloalto]

Fun with 405nm
http://laserpointerforums.com/f38/list-all-known-uv-fluorescent-material-43167.html

 

[daguin]

Laser Man - Effects

Check out Andy's "projects" page as well while you're on the site

Peace,
dave

 

[mrbubl3s]

Wow, he has a lot of neat stuff on that site, thanks for sharing!

 

[proud2deviate]

A simple one is to reflect a laser off a CD. The reflection will be a series of spaced lines. The spacing gets tighter as the wavelength of the laser decreases. You can use this method to differentiate between similar wavelengths, such as 635 vs 650. Consider it a stepping stone to a real diffraction grating.

 

[Benm]

.. or set everything on fire you possibly can

You can have fun bouncing the beams around the house with mirrors and such too - no glasses stricly required if you are careful, but much safer with some protection.

 

[Uranium]

.. or set everything on fire you possibly can

You can have fun bouncing the beams around the house with mirrors and such too - no glasses stricly required if you are careful, but much safer with some protection.

I once bounced a beam so much that the dot ended up being 6in wide and skewed to oblivion

 

[Benm]

It depends on the mirrors too - real fsm mirrors perform a lot better than standard bathroom mirrors that arent even flat in terms of 10x the wavelength...