Tag: lasers

Visualizing musical vibrations

[podcast]https://edwardwillett.com/wp-content/upLoads//2011/05/Visualizing-Musical-Vibrations.mp3[/podcast] As the classic Disney animated film Fantasia opens, a symphony orchestra starts to play, and the music emerging from the instruments becomes visible as blasts of color and dancing shapes. In real life, alas, music is primarily an auditory rather than visual experience. Although there is certainly interest to be had in watching a …

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The laser at 50

[podcast]https://edwardwillett.com/wp-content/upLoads//2010/05/Lasers-at-50.mp3[/podcast] You know you’ve been writing a column a long time when the 50th anniversary of a major scientific discovery comes along and you realize you wrote a column celebrating its 30th anniversary. But that’s exactly what’s happening this month. Next week (Saturday, May 15, to be precise) marks the 50th anniversary of the invention …

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That’s not a laser security system…

…this is a laser security system!* Ionatron’s security device shoots a laser across a doorway or hall to create a stream of plasma (called a laser-induced plasma channel, or LIPC). Since the plasma is conductive, it’s easy to fire a jolt of electricity down the plasma path, which can be lethal or “less lethal,” at …

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Laser eye surgery

I grew up in a glasses-wearing family. My parents wore glasses, my two older brothers wore glasses and I, by the age of five, also wore glasses. In more recent years, my brother Dwight and I switched to contacts, but while contacts may be invisible to others, they’re still glasses, albeit tiny ones stuck to …

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Lasers

Last year (1990) marked the 30th anniversary of an important event that somehow did not result in any parades or speeches or days off work–and no, it wasn’t my birthday. But it was a birthday of sorts: the birthday of the laser. On May 15, 1960, a cylindrical rod of synthetic ruby placed inside a …

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