Uses for Laser

Lasers are the structure of many of today's, and possibly the future's, technology. They are simple yet ideally important appliances in which countless machinery depend and are based on. Not only are these contraptions used for numerous uses, but are also for everyday things that many people may not give a second thought about. The most general use of laser light are listed below, but there are still many more.

Geography

Though it seems highly unlikely that lasers would be associated with any terms of geography, besides slicing the ground into and all that stuff from science fiction stories, t is indeed used for such a thing or else it wouldn’t even be mentioned here. Scientists, surveyors and engineers have all, at one point, used lasers to measure distances and lengths between one object and another. By using a special formula to calculate the distance, scientists can use the amount of time needed for the laser to hit the target and bounce back, like an echo. This can be easily done by multiplying half of the time taken by the speed of pulse, which travels at the speed of light at 300,000 km/sec. The time is halved because the time includes the amount of time for the laser to travel all the way thee and bounce back. In English, that basically means:

½ (time taken) (300,000 km/sec) = distance

 Because of the intense beam of light the laser has, scientists can use it to keep an eye on crustal movements on the Earth by simply setting up a piece of equipment to shoot laser over the fault line and onto a computer-monitored surface. The slightest, but significant movement would cause the laser to shift and the sensitive computer would pick it up. Despite the fact that this may not seem all that much, using laser in geography could alert people before hand on earthquakes and natural disasters as so to avoid as much damage and injury as possible.

Astronomy

Very much like geography, laser beams are also emitted to measure and record movements or distances in astronomy, or the study of the space and everything in it. By building a reflector and angling it exactly on the moon, scientists can emit a thin narrow beam of light into space, bounce it off the reflector and receive it back on Earth where a computer sits waiting to receive the signal. Upon receiving the signal, the computer compares the characteristics of the received laser beam to the one emitted and computes the distance between the Earth and the moon. The measurements are extremely precise, since there is nothing else to reflect or deter the laser in space, at an accuracy of 15cm, when the moon was 400,000 km from the Earth. With the help of lasers, researchers and scientists have been able to measure speed and distances long and short, including the speed of light.

Industry

Industry, being one of the most used areas of lasers, is an obvious category in which laser would be used under. Everything from the small common bar code on price tags to the many sources of entertainment has a use for lasers. By focusing on an extremely small spot the intensity of the laser beam, it can be melted into liquid leaving a small precise hole in which the surrounding materials remain unaffected, just as seen in the movies. These narrow beams of concentrated light can easily cut intricate patterns into surfaces, while turning waste, such as sawdust, into gas that floats harmlessly away to mix into the atmosphere. (Bet you didn’t know that!) So, in this way, not only are lasers applied everything from delicate computer chips to heavy steel, but they also provide a clean workspace, decreasing the chance of error and mess.

However, laser is not only used for all those carpenter/ construction people to-be, even in communication, lasers play a huge role in helping complete the job. Many may have heard of the word, fiber optics, but what does it truly mean? These are flexible strands of glass that can be used as a tunnel or wire in which laser can be shot through carrying tens of thousands of phone calls, e-mails…etc to be shot through in seconds. A small bundle of optic wire, despite the heavy costs, can replace about two miles of metal wiring needed to transmit the same amount of data. That’s wow for you.

Every time you turn on the TV, CD player, MP3, I pod, the computer to visit this awesome website (that’s right. This website is gooooooood) or any other types of appliances, laser is being used one way or the other. When a disc is being played, like CDs or DVDs, laser light in the electronic uses a small, not-as-strong-as-melting laser to read all the near invisible pits and grooves made on the surface of discs, which also explains why manufacturers are always so crazy about not touching the surface or things like that, because it might ruin the laser’s reading thus also ruining the disc’s performance. Today, in astronomy as well, laser, once a feared and experimental matter, is used in almost everything, as you may see.

Military

Yes. The thing we’ve all been waiting for: telling of how soldiers fry each other into burnt pieces of nothing with laser guns. Sorry to disappoint, but such things would probably be banned or whoever got their hands on such a weapon could sauté or deep-fry a whole entire country in who-knows-how-many seconds. Plus, even if such a thing were to be invented, laser at that degree would undetectable to the eye, because the frequency of the laser would be to high and fast, but that’s a totally different subject/ topic, which would probably fry your own brains. Ok, let’s get back on topic.

For many years, lasers were thought as the solution to everyone’s problems. After all, what could be easier than taking a small laser and melting a hole in your enemy’s head? However, to produce a laser with that intensity, the thing would have to not only been HUGE, but also the measurements of all that reflection/ deflection of light would be extremely complicated, added on to the problem of funding. For now, scientists have just focused on small things like using the light to aim at targets or use it to help identify one’s possessions of fingerprints, seeing that lasers can be used to transmit a massive amount of things. However, some have taken this use of lasers even farther to using these theories and ideas to produce science fiction novels where us, humans, would sue it to zap threatening asteroids into vapor or aliens using eye-catching, but bizarre and unreal “sweeping words of light” as used in War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells, now a major motion picture.

Medical

            Regardless of the wide and broad topic of the many uses of laser in the medical field, only a general amount of topics would probably be described here, seeing that most people have other things to do with their lives than just sitting in front of the computer making a list of all the ways lasers can be used in medicine. Laser is not only known for its precise and intense properties but also for its lasting results after the cut. Lasers can be used for a variety of things from removing unwanted skin damages and body hair to preventing tumors and fixing sight. (Yep, ll tht kind of stuff)

            However, even though laser is known for many things, the most important characteristic of such is tool is the heat produced by the many photons or light particles in the air. Laser, as mentioned before, can cut with delicate exactness like a scalpel, only much better and surer. Due to the heat it causes, the laser automatically melds or cauterize (burn shut) the blood vessels and tissue back together, leaving scarcely a trace, also known as coagulation. This quick and painless method can also be seen with a carbon dioxide laser in which cancer cells are heated so quickly that they burst and leave through the blood stream. Operations such as these are bloodless and can destroy tumors, clear clogged arteries and reattach retinas quickly and efficiently.

            The most famous way of using laser, however, is probably the restoration of sight. By some chance, the retina can peel off the back of the eye ball, causing loss of sight in a few places before becoming totally blind.  Surgeons use a range of techniques to accomplish this, including hot needles or light from a xenon arc-lamp which is supposed to lay the retina back into place. Using a laser beam, however, would not only reduce the chance of infection but also prevents scarring or wounds. By forming a type of extremely small weld (about the size of a grammatical period mark) with the laser, doctors briefly shine the laser into the patient’s eye and, because the pulses of the wavelength is so short (about 1,000^th per second), there is no possibility of the patient suddenly moving or reacting to the light. Who knows what would happen if something like that didhappen! The laser would burn wich ever skin area in which it touched and that would be both horrific (for the patient and the doctor getting sued probably) and interesting for us people (the third person who have nothing else better to do in our lives.)

            As pointed out earlier, carbon dioxide lasers are also used for small things such as zapping cells or melding them together. Dermatologists, or doctors in which specialize in skin surgery, can remove minor things such as freckles and small scars, while also removing fine lines and wrinkles by burning away the old dead skin and revealing younger skin.

            The medical field is probably the area in which most uses lasers for such things akin to cutting and use in operations. These tools can be life and pain saving, so that surgeries are less messy and something that will soon become less feared.