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What's the point of a 16y/o owning a green laser pointer

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kissaholic

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My son wants to order a green laser pointer because they are cool. What in the world could he do that would benefit anyone ? I say nothing except he's asking for trouble or wanting to burn my eyes out of the back of my head.
 





my dad is the same way, he doesn't understand what I use Lasers for. It's hard to explain, there's just something awesome about a nice pretty beam in the palm of your hands.
 
My father likes lasers, he ordered for himself 'true' 50mw.
lasers are amazing, when it will come to your hands, you'll understand.
 
So i am going to have to say it.
LIGHT SABER!
Come on....
Oh and i use mine for star pointing. i got tired of trying to tell people where it was so my 50mw from the led shop fixed that.
I also am making laser light shows for parties.
 
If you've been to at least one rock concert since 1980 you wouldn't be asking that question.

Its the same reason you bought him crayons. In hope he may use them one day to create something interesting and beautiful. If not he will get bored with it and throw it a way like he did his crayons.

You should point him here. We hammer these guys with lasers safety, and have may projects if he gets into the hobby.
 
kissaholic said:
My son wants to order a green laser pointer because they are cool. What in the world could he do that would benefit anyone ? I say nothing except he's asking for trouble or wanting to burn my eyes out of the back of my head.
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if your kid truly wants a laser make sure they understand laser safety and local laws before letting them buy or you buying them anything. there are too many people already ruining this hobby for us by pointing lasers at planes, helicopters and cars. make sure they understand that you CAN go to prison for such infractions and enforce the safety side of things. i link to this website on my website: Laser Pointer Safety - Tips on keeping laser pointers safe and legal

do your research first and make sure you understand the circumstances before letting them purchase anything. we need to teach this to younger members so we can keep this great hobby alive!
 
why not? Some people are born so that light seems really fun, especially powerful light, and I am one of those people. I am younger than your son, and so far lasers have taught be innumerable things about physics, electronics, math, energy, and so on. However, get your son protective goggles. You want to teach him laser responsibility. I had to learn myself, I could have gotten in trouble many times. But if he really gets in to lasers, I say why not? What's the harm?
 
With proper safety education, pointers are harmless.

Or if you prefer your child could always do "experiments" with cheech and bong.
 
personally I feel they inspire creative thinking. Hey, at least he wont be watching TV for every second he is using it, and that should be reason enough!
 
IMO you should get him a nice 5mw green laser to start with. Those are already pretty cool because you can see the beam at night and the spot is about 5x brighter than a red laser with the same output. Also they're relatively harmless and if he uses that responsibly he can have something more powerful.
 
Like most people said, If you don't get it now you never will :)

The number of times I've been asked why I spend money on lasers is unreal, and there is no real answer. There's just something great about having a such a concentrated amount of light in a thin beam. It just looks unreal.

Personally I enjoy the sense of acheivment you get from building a laser, and the amount I have learn just being on this forum is un-real. You learn all sorts of things from safety, how light and different lasers work. And you also pick up a vast amount of electronic knowledge :d

Point your son to this forum, let him do a little research on the hobby and choose a reletivly cheap laser from a trusted site like O-like or something.

At the age of 16, and with a little reading he'll soon understand the dangers of lasers.

:)
 
kissaholic said:
My son wants to order a green laser pointer because they are cool. What in the world could he do that would benefit anyone ? I say nothing except he's asking for trouble or wanting to burn my eyes out of the back of my head.
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You know your son better than anybody else. If he is a responsible type, that understands the hazards, and can use it safely (in a similar way as gun safety), then he would be fine with it.

But at that age, what about his friends? If he is the type that would let his friends just take it from him, then you could imagine how easily it could be a bad thing. So it mostly just depends on the type of person he is...
 
I vote for a 50mW one then. I owned my first one at that age and I don't see what's wrong with it.

You have for sure a lot of things that you bought for the heck of it, let him have some fun!
 
Cyparagon said:
I vote for a <5mW pointer as well.
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The exact thing I just stopped here to say.

Start out with $5 Wal mart pointer (Assuming you son has never had ANY laser before) and monitor his behavior with it.

If he behaves in a responsible fashion with that, then order him a nice green pointer, Don't order anything over the top, a nice $20 green pen will be plenty.

in any case 5mw or less would be the most responsible thing as a parent to start him out with.

As other members have already said, it will inspire creative thinking, he will dream up ways to do interesting things with it.

Use it as leverage, good grades equals laser time, bad grades equals "lock up the laser time"
 
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