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Wicked Lasers
perhaps some of you have heard of this already, but for those who havnt, its seems to be a super strong laser pointer.
According to the site, the Elite series is powerful enough to pop balloons, burn a hole in a garbage bag and even burn skin.
If anyone has one, or is getting one, can u confirm if the whole burning thing is true. I find it hard to believe something like that would be marketed commercially.
true, those could really kill someone. Its not dont point that to someones eye anymore (you point for a second, it aches), its point that and you get your eye burned.Quote:
Originally posted by: Assassin
If anyone has one, or is getting one, can u confirm if the whole burning thing is true. I find it hard to believe something like that would be marketed commercially.
OMG! lol we are all going to die, plus there is gonna be alot of stupid shit people are going to do with it. [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]
open cut healing power.......?
as in, burning ur wound closed?
thats pretty hardcore. I wonder how severely it could burn skin.
Ah lasers. I've built lasers before, but those were infrared, so you coudn't see them. Not half as much fun as these.
The information on the site looks fairly accurate. These are class 3b lasers. Typically, most laser pointers are class 3a. If you get a class 3a laser in the eye, your blink reflex will be enough to save your sight. There's no real danger unless you stare into the beam for a long time. For class 3b, your blink reflex isn't enough. A direct beam in your eye can seriously hurt you, depending on the power of the laser and whether or not it's pulsed. For the ones on this site, it looks as though their most powerful ones are around 125 mW. This will burn things if you hold it on one spot for a significant period of time, but shouldn't be any threat if passes over your skin. You might have trouble importing one of these, depending on what country you live in. You might have to go through a bunch of paperwork that justifies your use of them. I wouldn't recommend using one of these unless everyone nearby was wearing protective laser glasses. The lower power ones though, that are just above 5 mW shouldn't be particularly dangerous.
Since kids are already notorious with laser pointers, this is the last thing they need.
In the end, I'm pretty happy there is the ~5 mW max output general rule. Of course I would never misuse a more powerful laser (just like I have never misused my 5 mW pointer), but I don't trust the other people who might acquire one...
Omg we are getting closer to having lightsabers in every home.
They're actually selling these? Why in blazes do we need a more powerful laser to just point things with??
After reading the website, it seems to me their main reasoning is just to boost the power to make the beam more visible. I suppose it makes sense that you need less particles in the air if the light intensity grows. And likewise background lighting affects in a lesser extent. As we (probably) all know from personal experience, the 5 mW red laser needs quite a messy air to make the beam visible.
i've always hated those stupid bastards in class who played around with the lasers. Now its going to be worse
ppl gonna get blinded if they got shot in the eye....25 times brighter than regualr lasers
so carry with a magnify glass....even more dangerous -_-
Doesn't the laser have to hit something at the focal point for it to actually burn...? Think of burning CD's for example. It's strong enough to penetrate the plastic and gouge the actual disk, but it doesn't melt the plastic because it's only focused at the point of contact with the actual disk. I've used a very strong laser before and no matter where I placed my hand, I couldn't feel anything.
It damages the eye not because it's hot, but because it's so bright that it damages the sensory nerves inside your eye. Am I wrong about this whole focal point thing?
This company WILL be either sued or shut down. There are going to be so many accidents......
I believe you're right about that. But if the kid has a magnifying glass or mirrors, couldn't they make their own focal point for the laser?Quote:
Originally posted by: BOARD_of_command
Doesn't the laser have to hit something at the focal point for it to actually burn...? Think of burning CD's for example. It's strong enough to penetrate the plastic and gouge the actual disk, but it doesn't melt the plastic because it's only focused at the point of contact with the actual disk. I've used a very strong laser before and no matter where I placed my hand, I couldn't feel anything.
It damages the eye not because it's hot, but because it's so bright that it damages the sensory nerves inside your eye. Am I wrong about this whole focal point thing?
Focal point is kindof a relative term. Some light sources, or sources in combination with lenses have a minimum focal point. That is, there is a spot size that is the smallest possible, you can't reduce it down to zero. If you have a perfectly collimated beam, it will have a focal point of infinity since the rays will never converge. In general, laser pointers try for this perfect collimation, but in actuality are slightly diverging. This is why your laser pointer beam gets larger and fuzzier at greater distances. Now, you can use a lens to focus the beam. What this does is it increases the power per unit area. Five milliwatts over a 1cm radius isn't going to do very much, but once you have five milliwatts concentrated to a spot of half a millimetre radius that spot starts to heat up. You're delivering more power to it than it can dissipate, and it absorbs this power and starts to burn (speaking of a generic flammable material of course....every material will have a different heat capacity, rate of heat dissipation and rate of absorption of photons, etc.). So you could be using a 10 Watt laser, but if the beam is really large, it won't do much more than a tiny laser pointer.Quote:
Originally posted by: BOARD_of_command
Doesn't the laser have to hit something at the focal point for it to actually burn...? Think of burning CD's for example. It's strong enough to penetrate the plastic and gouge the actual disk, but it doesn't melt the plastic because it's only focused at the point of contact with the actual disk. I've used a very strong laser before and no matter where I placed my hand, I couldn't feel anything.
It damages the eye not because it's hot, but because it's so bright that it damages the sensory nerves inside your eye. Am I wrong about this whole focal point thing?
For these lasers advertised, they would need to be held for a while on a single spot to make it burn. The rate of heat absorption needs to be greater than the rate of heat dissipation, and this ratio will determine how fast your material will heat up.
And from what the webpage says, it seems as though the buyers of these lasers want them mostly for commercial or industrial applications as tools or aids in experiments. They specifically caution against using them as laser pointers.
Heh heh. Good thing I never posted the text I had already written as an answer. Although it contained pretty much the same things (in theory), yours is 1000% better.
Those things are probably there just for the lawyers. We all know their primary customers are rich kids and delinquent adults...Quote:
Originally posted by: KitKat
And from what the webpage says, it seems as though the buyers of these lasers want them mostly for commercial or industrial applications as tools or aids in experiments. They specifically caution against using them as laser pointers.
edit: nevermind.
So does the lens at the front of the laser pointer act as the focus, or does it just provide an emission outlet for the beam and you'd need an external lens to actually make it strong?Quote:
Originally posted by: KitKat
Focal point is kindof a relative term. Some light sources, or sources in combination with lenses have a minimum focal point. That is, there is a spot size that is the smallest possible, you can't reduce it down to zero. If you have a perfectly collimated beam, it will have a focal point of infinity since the rays will never converge. In general, laser pointers try for this perfect collimation, but in actuality are slightly diverging. This is why your laser pointer beam gets larger and fuzzier at greater distances. Now, you can use a lens to focus the beam. What this does is it increases the power per unit area. Five milliwatts over a 1cm radius isn't going to do very much, but once you have five milliwatts concentrated to a spot of half a millimetre radius that spot starts to heat up. You're delivering more power to it than it can dissipate, and it absorbs this power and starts to burn (speaking of a generic flammable material of course....every material will have a different heat capacity, rate of heat dissipation and rate of absorption of photons, etc.). So you could be using a 10 Watt laser, but if the beam is really large, it won't do much more than a tiny laser pointer.
For these lasers advertised, they would need to be held for a while on a single spot to make it burn. The rate of heat absorption needs to be greater than the rate of heat dissipation, and this ratio will determine how fast your material will heat up.