how i thought a laser worked when i was younger

[mikeeey]

When i was younger I thought a laser was just a bright LED light in a barrel.
I knew that light bulbs and other lights shined light everywhere and in all directions, and the light bulb was exposed. So i thought the same about this LED inside the laser. i thought that the cap was just hiding the rest of the light, and the only light escaping was coming out of the hole. So i thought if you were able to expose this LED so none of it was being blocked or hidden, it would shine red EVERYWHERE. i thought it could take out an entire room with pure REDNESS.
i never knew how light can come out of only 1 part and not anywhere else, i thought light should be able to shine everywhere.

 

[VillageIdiot]

Re: how i thought a laser worked when i was younge

I had no freakin' idea how a laser worked when I was younger. I thought laser pointers weren't actual lasers, just a beam of light.... I dunno, when I was younger a laser had to look like this

 

[diachi]

Re: how i thought a laser worked when i was younge

When I was younger I though lasers had to have all sorts of fancy crystals inside, and when you put electricity through them you go some red light Suppose I was nearly right with the electricity and crystal thing only its not a crystal its a semi-conductor. I also only thought that you could only get red, as do most people, even people in my school are amazed, they are like why is it green, I never knew you could get green.

Diachi

 

[styropyro]

Re: how i thought a laser worked when i was younge

I thought that batteries were hooked up to a Ruby :-[

 

[happytomato]

Re: how i thought a laser worked when i was younge

I thought that batteries were hooked up to a Ruby :-[

That made me smile.

 

[Ace82]

Re: how i thought a laser worked when i was younge

Haha!  Great topic.   I had no idea how lasers worked when I saw my teacher use one in class ($120 5mW 630-650nm) when I was in 6th grade (15yrs ago), so I decided to look it up, because I just knew light naturally spread, like an instinct, plus, I was really intrigued with the "spackle", or "particles" of light, that seemed to move if the dot remained still but only my head moved, I knew lasers were spectacular.  I thought it worked off of a neon tube rapped around a ruby cylinder surrounded in reflective tube with reflective mirrors on each side of the tube.  I thought rubys were used to channel the frequency of light to a single color, heck, just see my attached drawing!  

 

[daguin]

Re: how i thought a laser worked when i was younge

When I was growing up we all ""knew"" how lasers worked because they were in the news. Here's what I watched

How about this / The first(?) laser pointer?

Now THAT'S some slick pointer there. . . . .'Course you can't go very far with it :-[

 

[mikeeey]

Re: how i thought a laser worked when i was younge

damn all your guys thoughts were so complex when you were young. none of you thought it was just a bright LED light and that's it?

 

[diachi]

Re: how i thought a laser worked when i was younge

I thought that batteries were hooked up to a Ruby :-[

Pretty much what I thought, only I though it was a piece of quartz

 

[Schrecken_Licht]

Re: how i thought a laser worked when i was younge

When I was a child laser pointers didn't exist, so I don't think I thought anything about them. All I knew about lasers was what I saw in sci-fi movies (bad source of info!).

I think a lot of people have misconceptions about lasers - not long ago when I was showing my roommate my 125mw green pointer, she asked me if I could change the "lens" to get a different colored beam! She thought it was like a flashlight with a color filter over the bulb. She's 52 years old so these ideas aren't limited to children!

But I will say one thing - until I worked at that laser machine shop in 1997 (when I was 27) I had no idea there were such things as IR (or any other kind of laser with an invisible beam) lasers - I thought all lasers were visible light lasers! I was well into adulthood then....

Lasers tend to be quite misunderstood by many people - either grossly overestimated or underestimated when it comes to their capabilities and limitations.

 

[Chad]

Re: how i thought a laser worked when i was younge

when I was showing my roommate my 125mw green pointer, she asked me if I could change the "lens" to get a different colored beam!

ROFL! I get asked the same thing every time I bring mine out... I've showed off both my 125mW CNI and my DIY red in various science classes, and that's the most common thing that's said to me... then they get pissed off when I try to go in-depth on why it's not possible, or why they don't know squat about lasers.

 

[nikokapo]

Re: how i thought a laser worked when i was younge

I knew there was a "brick with some electronic stuff" that magically went into a glass thingy that i couldnt reach with my finger.
the batts had to touch that spring

i was disassembling stuff since i was 4 years old (yeah, every toy i had was disassembled and re-assembled just for fun, to look at what was inside).
im sure most of you did that too.



lol, we geeks think like this:

OH, the warranty just voided! now i can open my LCD monitor!!!!!

 

[VillageIdiot]

Re: how i thought a laser worked when i was younge

Fuck yeah, I just opened up this magnetic pen holder I have that holds a pen upright and it's got this sweet neodymium magnet in it! It's pretty strong!

 

[diachi]

Re: how i thought a laser worked when i was younge

[quote author=Schrecken_Licht link=1214034173/0#9 date=1214075834]when I was showing my roommate my 125mw green pointer, she asked me if I could change the "lens" to get a different colored beam!

ROFL! I get asked the same thing every time I bring mine out... I've showed off both my 125mW CNI and my DIY red in various science classes, and that's the most common thing that's said to me... then they get pissed off when I try to go in-depth on why it's not possible, or why they don't know squat about lasers.  
[/quote]

I have had exactly the same experience with so many people

"can you put a red bit of plastic on there and make the beam red"
"No I cant, the light is coherant"
"what does that mean" :



lasers do actually use crystals inside them, but its more complicated than putting some electricity through a ruby and getting light out the other end.

Diachi

 

[diachi]

Re: how i thought a laser worked when i was younge

I knew there was a "brick with some electronic stuff" that magically went into a glass thingy that i couldnt reach with my finger.
the batts had to touch that spring

i was disassembling stuff since i was 4 years old (yeah, every toy i had was disassembled and re-assembled just for fun, to look at what was inside).
im sure most of you did that too.



lol, we geeks think like this:

OH, the warranty just voided! now i can open my LCD monitor!!!!!

Exactly the way I think !

"Is the keyboard on that laptop working, no ?, well lets rip it apart"

yes I actually did this, I even ripped apart the screen on it, theres a few line generating reflective surfaces in there that are quite cool.

I basically take apart anything that no longer has a use, and if it still has a use I rebuild it or find another use for it !

Diachi

 

[nikokapo]

Re: how i thought a laser worked when i was younge

[quote author=nikokapo link=1214034173/0#11 date=1214178965]I knew there was a "brick with some electronic stuff" that magically went into a glass thingy that i couldnt reach with my finger.
the batts had to touch that spring

i was disassembling stuff since i was 4 years old (yeah, every toy i had was disassembled and re-assembled just for fun, to look at what was inside).
im sure most of you did that too.



lol, we geeks think like this:

OH, the warranty just voided! now i can open my LCD monitor!!!!!

Exactly the way I think !

"Is the keyboard on that laptop working, no ?, well lets rip it apart"

yes I actually did this, I even ripped apart the screen on it, theres a few line generating reflective surfaces in there that are quite cool.

I basically take apart anything that no longer has a use, and if it still has a use I rebuild it or find another use for it !

Diachi
[/quote]


Same here, haven't you ever ripped something apart just to see what's inside? Even if it was working but you just didn't use it anymore...
I usually take apart stuff that doesn't work anymore, trying not to break the structure, everything can be disassembled and reassembled (not iPods though ). And then you take out whatever you think will be useful in the future!: Motors, diodes, metal bars, magnets, motors, motors, cool buttons, etc...