Cool experiments?

[Proton]

I have a blue laser with a power of about 1W. I have a youtube channel where I mainly make chemistry related videos but I wanna expand to lasers and whatnot as well. I want to do some cool experiments but I am pretty new to lasers. I am going to attempt to levitate particles with it but other than that I cant think of too many experiments I could do that i could make a video (at least 3 mins) out of. Any ideas?

 

[anton]

I thought I heard in a video that you can only leverage particles with a red laser.

 

[Proton]

I thought I heard in a video that you can only leverage particles with a red laser.

Nah, its just that a lot of hobbyist built lasers have bad specs, red lasers are easier to make more powerful for hobbyists so I guess it is a misconception, but I dont know if my laser is powerful enough, so I guess I will find out. If not then I'll buy/build a red laser as well!

 

[paul1598419]

The best way to accomplish this is to focus your laser out just a few inches. About 2 or 3. Then try to add your particles in the beam's waist. That will be at the focal point. Their mass should be very low and air currents should be eliminated.

 

[hakzaw1]

a DARK color balloon inside a 'clear' one--if done right, will pop before the outer one (use a condom).
Use the smallest black balloon you can find== it needs to 'tight' --you can make a black dot on any balloon w/a black sharpie marker..if you do not have a dark colored one..

 

[MEDDER]

Uncertainty principal, airy disks, what different types of lenses do both by themselves and in combination. You could also do fluorescence, I have a pair of orange shorts and shoes that glow orange'ish/yellow when hit with a 532nm laser. (I really need to find out what type of dye nike uses for their orange stuff).

 

[steve001]

Find minerals that demonstrate phosphorescence. For examples using 405nm light: marble, Titanium Dioxide, gypsum. Marble glows orange and the other two glow a pale ghostly white.
Many items fluoresce too using 405 nm light.
I was very surprised to discover some brands of toothbrush bristles fluoresce a brilliant slighly bluish-white.

 

[paul1598419]

I was a rock hound back in the early 1960s and had a black light back then just for checking for fluorescence. I had many fluorescent minerals, then the late 60s came around and day glow posters were all the rage. Got a lot of use out of that black light.

 

[MEDDER]

After looking into it a bit, the wikipedia article on Optical Levitation gives some good info.

Like someone mentioned though, steady air is a very important requirement