HowStuffWorks "How Lasers Work"

[http://www.howstuffworks.com/] SUBSCRIBE Adventure Animals Auto Culture Entertainment Health Home & Garden Lifestyle Money Science Tech Video Shows Quizzes Engineering Environmental Science Forces of Nature Innovation Life Science Military Physical Science Dictionary Science Vs. Myth Space Transportation Home / Science / Physical Science / Optics How Lasers Work by Matthew Weschler Page 1 Introduction to How Lasers Work 2 The Basics of an Atom 3 Absorbing Energy 4 The Laser/Atom Connection Photo courtesy NASA The Optical Damage Threshold test station at NASA Langley Research Center. "Star Wars," "Star Trek," "Battlestar Galactica" -- laser technology plays a pivotal role in science fiction movies and books. It's no doubt thanks to these sorts of stories that we now associate lasers with futuristic warfare and sleek spaceships . Up Next HowStuffWorks Forum: Is laser power limitless? How Light Works How Atoms Work ­Discovery.com: Giant Laser ­But lasers play a pivotal role in our everyday lives, too. The fact is, they show up in an amazing range of products and technologies. You'll find them in everything from CD players to dental drills to high-speed metal cutting mac­hines to measuring systems. Tattoo removal, hair replacement , eye surgery -- they all use lasers. But what is a laser? What makes a laser beam different from the beam of a flashlight ? Specifically, what makes a laser light different from other kinds of light? How are lasers classified? In this article, you'll learn all about the different types of lasers, their different wavelengths and the uses to which we put them. But first, let's start with the fundament­als of laser technology: go to the next page to find out the basics of an atom. Print Cite This! Close Please copy/paste the following text to properly cite this HowStuffWorks article: Weschler, Matthew. "How Lasers Work" 01 April 2000. HowStuffWorks.com. 14 August 2014. Citation & Date Feedback Page 1 Introduction to How Lasers Work 2 The Basics of an Atom 3 Absorbing Energy 4 The Laser/Atom Connection 5 Laser Light 6 Ruby Lasers 7 Three-Level Laser 8 Types of Lasers More To Explore All Things Science 10 Incredible Wind Power Facts 10 Remarkable Exoplanets Fact or Fiction: Earthquakes Top 10 Things That Women Invented Strange, Spooky, Scary: The Supernatural Quiz Watch 100 Greatest Discoveries videos » You Might Also Like The Skinny on Sonic Booms A sonic boom occurs when a vessel breaks the speed of sound. So what is this infamous sonic boom, if not the shattering of the picture-window-in-the-sky? 5 Discoveries Made By the Large Hadron Collider (So Far) The Large Hadron Collider isn't just a one-trick (Higgs) pony. Find out what else has happened where hundreds of millions of particles may collide any given second. Popular Articles Fermium Noble Gases How do investigators determine if a wildfire was caused by arson? Most Popular Most Watched Most Popular 10 Reasons Why Tesla Is a Scientific God Strange, Spooky, Scary: The Supernatural Quiz 10 Heaviest Objects Mankind Has Ever Moved How Hydraulic Machines Work 10 Correlations That Are Not Causations Most Watched How to Make (Almost) Everything Understanding Bridges How do they do it? Why aren't the keys on my computer in alphabetical order? The Most Important Things So Far, Seriously Don't Miss Stuff You Should Know: Demystifying Your World Stuff Mom Never Told You: All Things Women and Gender Stuff You Missed in History Class: Fact or Fiction? CHECK OUT OUR PODCASTS HOWSTUFFWORKS NEWSLETTER THE LATEST AND GREATEST SUBSCRIBE HOWSTUFFWORKS Adventure Animals Auto Culture Entertainment Health Home & Garden Lifestyle Money Science Tech MORE STUFF Blogs HSW Tools RSS Maps Podcasts Quizzes Newsletters Video HSW Brazil HSW China STUFF WEBSITES BrainStuff CarStuff Fw:Thinking Stuff Mom Never Told You Stuff of Genius Stuff They Don't Want You to Know Stuff to Blow Your Mind Stuff You Missed in History Class Stuff You Should Know CUSTOMER SERVICE Advertising Contact Us Help CORPORATE About Us Careers @ HSW Privacy Policy Visitor Agreement TAKE US WITH YOU FOLLOW US Copyright © 1998-2014 HowStuffWorks, a division of InfoSpace LLC