The next time you’re annoying people from afar with your laser pointer, you’ll have a greater appreciation for its bright and focused beam after watching One Minute Physics break down the theoretical science behind how it works.
While the explanation touches on complicated Bose-Einstein statistics, it basically comes down to excited photons bouncing back and forth between mirrors, who then excite other photons, who then excite other photons, etc.
When enough of them are excited and released through a tiny opening, PEW PEW, the results are an intense and focused beam that we refer to as a laser. So now in addition to annoying your friends with a blinding dot of light, you can also annoy them with an explanation of how it came to be. [Minute Physics]
Greg
Tuesday, December 6, 2011 at 11:00 AMLasers are cool
red t-rex
Tuesday, December 6, 2011 at 4:14 PMI sort of get it but if atoms want to be like one another, then why do they want to be like the excited atom and emit a photon when in the beginning the excited atom is in the minority? I think the example is flawed, not the physics.
Ghazarios
Tuesday, December 6, 2011 at 4:44 PMBecause everyone is seeing how much of a good time that atom is having, and decide to get excited too.
jayrrr
Tuesday, December 6, 2011 at 6:42 PMi always knew photons just wana party……. cindy lauper should make a song about it
LaserTo
Friday, February 24, 2012 at 6:10 PMNice video to explain laser working theory.