Practical reasons for owning a laser?

[R.ticle One]

Everyone - I must add this preface before beginning: This is not intended to flame anyone! I am honestly curious about this question.

What are your practical reasons for owning lasers? What do they get used for (other than the balloon popping, match lighting, shining through smoke or fog for a neat effect, glow-in-the-dark-material writing, marble blasting things that I've seen)?

Sure, many would question the practical need for the good flashlights we love here, if you can easily see your way with a 20 dollar hardware store light versus a hundred and fifty dollar aluminum beauty or a five hundred dollar outrageous lumens wall of light - but to me it makes sense to invest in a quality light, because you want to count on it when you need it - even if we may take it a bit overboard.

But lasers? What practical situations do you find yourselves using them in? I can imagine military, astronomy, and maybe lecturing.

What do most of you do with your lasers?

Serious question. I find them very neat, and the "tricks" you can do with them are impressive, but I can't imagine needing one as much as a good flashlight. Perhaps for some, the "tricks" are reason enough, and that's fine.

Thanks for your answers!

Cheers,

R.ticle One

Edited because I just saw that sticky eye damage thread - that's one scary aspect about owning one that could bother me. I know. I read "take the batteries out when cleaning!". Still, that sounds like an awful accident.

 

[VillageIdiot]

Quite simply, lasers for the average joe are largely a hobby and for fun, like video games. Flashlights are a necessity, but some people on here have stretched that into a collection or a hobby because it's fun. And I know you're not trying to diss lasers. Lasers are very relevant scientifically and in experiments etc, but they are not nearly useful enough day-to-day to EDC or anything like that. They're just big boy's toys, really, you know like R/C.

Edit: Some people actually use lasers in different wavelengths for their job, but that's rare. I know that blu-ray lasers are better than UV LEDs for GITD.

 

[JB3]

"Equipped to Survive" a non-profit, educational website ( http://www.equipped.org/ ) states that a laser is, and can be, a very good signaling device in emergency situations.
Might be good to throw one in your survival pack ....
I dunno ... maybe .... :candle:

 

[Yoda4561]

I hear the green ones are popular in astronomy type stuff as it's easy to "point" with the easily visible beam to help people find a constelation/ messier object.

 

[Light Sabre]

"Equipped to Survive" a non-profit, educational website ( http://www.equipped.org/ ) states that a laser is, and can be, a very good signaling device in emergency situations.
Might be good to throw one in your survival pack ....
I dunno ... maybe .... :candle:

I put one of Targets $5 laser pointers in my flashlight kit (multiple types of flashlights) in my car for emergencies. Got the idea from someone who posted a link to a website about a signaling laser so that search aircraft can find you better. It was a $100 tho. You wouldn't want to point a laser pointer directly at the plane or helicopter, but would make you more visible if you kept moving it around and pointing at nearby objects. Would work great in dense fog at night if there were an accident. Monochromatic light shines further thu fog than white light. I live in Boulder CO which is right up against the mountains. There are several twisty turny 2 lane roads thru the canyons. Cars drive off the edge of the road from time to time. If someone doesn't see it happen you can be stuck in a ravine out of sight, possibly injured and can't make it back up the embankment, or worse trapped in your car. A laser pointer could be used to signal passing vehicles. I keep my flashlight kit in the passenger compartment for above reasons.

 

[ks_physicist]

I use them for lecturing and presentations, for optics demonstrations and labs, for Lissajous figure demonstrations, for small deflection measurement, and anything else I think of.

Haven't done holography yet, but it is on my radar.

 

[2xTrinity]

Here are the following applications I've personally used lasers for:

Handheld Lasers:

• Aligning/Leveling
• Presentations (any laser sufficient)
• Optics Demonstrations
• Star pointing (5mW green sufficient)
• Focusing cameras for night photos

Fixed lasers:

• Holography
  • Making pretty 3D pictures
  • Making diffractive optical elements (functionally similar to lenses)
• Lithography (UV Lasers)
  • Manufacturing semiconductor devices, and other structures with very small (<1 micron) features
• Laser Light Shows
• Optical Data Links
  • Both freespace and optical-fiber varieties

While there's little reason to own lasers for lithography or data links privately, I know of some people who have set up DIY holography setups for making 3d art.

 

[R.ticle One]

Thank you guys,

I had since thought of emergency signaling, but had not considered the other uses listed. I can understand having "toys" to play with, but I'm happy to see that some are also putting them to a wide variety of other uses!

R.ticle One

 

[allthatwhichis]

Laser Light Shows

:twothumbs:thumbsup::grin2::popcorn::cool:

 

[TITAN1833]

The red 5mw lasers can be used by doormen to point out potential trouble makers in a night club.;)


And of coarse for everything that has been said so far :twothumbs

 

[Yoda4561]

I hear the low power red ones are great for playing with cats?

 

[TITAN1833]

I hear the low power red ones are great for playing with cats?

LOL If that is the case,I hope people who do this try playing with the 300lb+ cats first :laughing:

 

[allthatwhichis]

My cats seem to see the 405nm much better than red. I don't play with them, well maybe one or two chases down the hall if I am pulling it out for no reason, but it is too powerfull to "play with any animals with. They will chase most any of them, but they seem to be interested in the 405 and 594 hene the most.

 

[VillageIdiot]

My mum collects rocks, to put it very bluntly, and seeing if some of them fluoresce (I hate that word) is fun.

The little lines on this rock glow hot pink under 405nm. The lines are normally a dull maroon.

Badly captured on cam, but this lil rock glows bright pink while all the others have no reaction. Amethyst tower btw.

 

[Superdave]

I hear the low power red ones are great for playing with cats?

Yes, i have 5 cats and they go completely nuts when the laser comes out. They even know the jingle of the chain and come running. :)

 

[roadie]

err hmmm usage for pointing out one box out of the tons of boxes in a warehouse?:poke:

 

[LuxLuthor]

To shoot down incoming missiles.

 

[Milos]

To shoot down incoming missiles.

..and hostile UFOs :poke:

I use lasers as flash light (when i spread beam slightly with manualy focusable front lens), and as distance check in thick fog. Flash lights just don't cut it as they make fog glow and light disperses in fog within few meters. With laser, it can penetrate further and give me sense of better orientation and safety in woods.

that, and many other uses mentioned or not mentioned above:wave:

 

[Me+Light=Addiction]

I have a 105 mW greenie just for fun. Love taking it on vacation and amaze everybody who walkes by. I would say: If you have some money, just get one, last long and are really fun. They aren't really practical, that's why I have plenty of flashlights:nana::devil::thumbsup:

Once I the power went out in the whole city for aprox 2 hours, and I would have been bored like hell but with the laser it went by fast. (It was incredible dark on the streets.:devil:

:candle:

 

[csshih]

ugh. ca legal is a no no.