Question on electricity and light (physics)

[SenKat]

THAT could be a bad problem....I would not like being the source I don;t think

 

[Ashton]

Well, I still don't think the CO2 backpack is the best idea - besides making power and cooling portable, a fragile large tube is not the ideal solution for a handheld - but anyway.

Not nessisarily large. I dont know about quality, but I've seen a number of CO2 lasers on ebay that are 10W and only 1' - 1.5' long, which could be used for a portable. And I realize the pwoer is a problem, I was looking at running the thing off a motorcycle battery or even a car battery --- one modle even WAS run off a car battery for demonstration pictures, so I know it's possible. The biggest problem I've run into with design is how to protect the blass tube from knocks and bumps (I know it ownt survive getting knocked accross a room, nomater how well protected, but it needs to be able to survive getting knocked around a little if it's portable, as will happen --- biggest problem I've run into..)

Using the laser to guide the spark is the whole point of this setup. I could easily use a tesla coil and draw sparks in a massive radius, I wanted to be able to direct the spark to a single point without 'rigging' it by using special wires and metals and underground rods and such.

But portability aside, is 10W not enough to ionice the distance I'm wanting? how high would I need to go? 40W? 80W? Higher???

EDIT:
@ mike: ouch, yes, that's part of why I was talkign about shielding the laser, I thought about the dangers of the spark commign back, though I didn't think about what could happen to ME if it hit... (lol worry about a $200-$500 laser, not your life... yeah, I have problems at times...)

 

[pseudonomen137]

I dont think you can even make it practical with a CO2 laser. The people who do this use femtosecond pulsed lasers. Not CW, but during the pulse we're probably talking at least the equivalent of a few Mega or Gigawatts (now that I think about it, Gigawatts is probably still a few orders of magnitude too low to compare with the peak of a fs laser pulse). Not to mention that CO2 has HORRIBLE beam specs. Unfortunately it just ain't possible like that - we're talking magnitudes of difference. As Aseras was describing, you may need a pulsed UV femtosecond laser. Trust me, you don't even want to start asking for prices. A fs pulsed DPSS UV laser would likely make selling your arm and leg look tame.

 

[SenKat]

Will they take a BAD leg ? Cause I am hardly using it anyways.....

 

[pseudonomen137]

Will they take a BAD leg ?  Cause I am hardly using it anyways.....

Sorry, I like to keep those businesses away from my hobbies. If you want to discuss prices on your unused organs and body parts you'll have to give me a call.