[BloodEagle]

is there any kind of eye wear that can protect you from a 1MW laser?

Yes, but with the blast shield down you can't see a thing.

[Nuke]

ive seen a few examples of high end lasers. ive observed an operation using a surgical laser, everyone in the room had to wear protective glasses. also had a laser cutter/engraver in my electronics class. and yes the thing has that glass shield with a special coating that blocks the harmful parts of the spectrum. both are cases of indirect exposure to light and so the eye protection probably wouldn't protect your vision from a direct burst of light directly from the laser.

[Thaeris]

is there any kind of eye wear that can protect you from a 1MW laser?

Yes, but with the blast shield down you can't see a thing.

Star Wars reference approved.

[Mika]

lasers cut wood quite well actually. its not as ideal a material as acrylic, but its fairly decent. most laser machines have a fitting for a compressor or gas tank. this is used to blow away ash from the cut and the lens. i figure you would feed this with something like co2 or argon, and you could cut wood with it. ive seen wood that has been laser cut, it has a really smooth albeit slightly blackened.

I have seen laser machined wood too. They usually have some kind of air circulation at the proximity of the object to be cut, and in the case of wood is likely rather important. But, why would anyone need wood with 10 µm or tighter tolerances in the first place? Laser engraving is one thing, but doing the whole wood doesn't make sense to me.

The biggest advantage I have seen in laser tooling is the speed compared to different manufacturing processes, but if somebody has enough time to construct a laser machining device on his own, he probably could have done the engraving in less time and considerably cheaper with traditional tools. If the laser is used to machine a block of material, its speed advantage starts to go away. On planar-like surfaces it works rather well.

both are cases of indirect exposure to light and so the eye protection probably wouldn't protect your vision from a direct burst of light directly from the laser.

That would principally be correct and is the main reason why I would like the higher powered lasers (III and IV) to be at least registered, better yet restricted only to those who can prove they need one. Even the indirect reflections of the Class IV lasers are dangerous and can cause burns, and calculating when the beam isn't dangerous requires a good grasp of Physics! You are not supposed to eyeball the beam even with shielding glasses on!

It really should really be taken with same respect as firearms.

I was thinking a good market for lasers such as this would be in lighting things on fire. A camping tool for lighting a fire, or you could do sort of a replacement for propane torches. It'd be a big hit with smokers. Light your cigarette in a strong gust of wind you could.

That would be an example of an application where I definitely would not like to see lasers being used.

[Pred the Penguin]

Mini laser gun then?

is there any kind of eye wear that can protect you from a 1MW laser?

Yes, but with the blast shield down you can't see a thing.

Star Wars reference approved.

Use the force?

[jr2]

They were working on some sort of coating for fighter pilots' helmets IIRC... had some sort of microscopic reflective mirrors that 'snapped' down when hit with a sufficiently bright burst of light.  That was an article I read a long time ago, I don't know if they actually ever started producing it.

[Mars]

They were working on some sort of coating for fighter pilots' helmets IIRC... had some sort of microscopic reflective mirrors that 'snapped' down when hit with a sufficiently bright burst of light.  That was an article I read a long time ago, I don't know if they actually ever started producing it.

I bet they did, otherwise every warship in the world would be using relatively cheap laser blinders / jammers.

[esarai]

Well with the fact that people can shoot down missiles with lasers quite successfully, I posit that hand-held laser weapons are quite close to fruition.

But a pistol?  Nah.  Where's the ****in'  pulse rifle? Or smart gun?

[StarSlayer]

smart gun?

Buy a MG42 and a steadicam harness and build one

[Glowhyena]

Damn cool! The futuristic gun finally came.

[z64555]

Two types of laser "armor" I know of are ablative or reflective.

Ablative armor essentially absorbs as much energy as it can, and discharge that energy into heat... generally at the cost of the armor itself being eatin away.

Reflective armor-which probably doesn't need much explanation- reflects/deflects the beam away from the target. Reflective armor is generally hazardous to bystanders, however.


I remember talk from somewhere back that IR spectrum lasers where perhaps the only viable spectrum for laser weaponry. This is because A. IR spectrum has the most energy per packet or pulse, and B. IR is invisible to the naked eye.

"Laser bolt to the brain" would require a bolt that is roughly a molecule thick at 1 MW... or a bolt at roughly the size of a pin's head with much more wattage. It takes a significant amount of time in order to burn through material... plus I have this sneaky suspicion that a tiny tiny hole in the brain would not be instantly fatal unless it some vital nerves.