Lasers and aircraft

Ed Wesly · Post by **Ed Wesly** » Tue Dec 10, 2013 11:08 am

This month's issue of Smithsonian Air & Space has an article about this.

Sam Goldwasser of Sam's Laser FAQ's is interviewed in the article! http://www.repairfaq.org/sam/lasersam.htm He works with 142laser Phil to give us the inexpensive photons!

142laser · Post by **142laser** » Tue Dec 10, 2013 1:55 pm

Thanks Ed.

The new powerfull and affordable laser pointers are getting out of hand. It is only a matter of time before some accident forces government regulation of laser sources that we will all regret. In the tampa bay area near TIA using one of these outdoors is asking for trouble; I am darn carefull with my 30 mW green pointer on halloween...1 watt and beyond is ridiculous.

Oh the photons are totally free but we do have to charge for the holography lasers.

Phil

Tony DCG · Post by **Tony DCG** » Tue Dec 10, 2013 1:56 pm

Is Sam the center fold???

holomaker · Post by **holomaker** » Tue Dec 10, 2013 4:45 pm

http://www.airspacemag.com/flight-today ... 93221.html

Dinesh · Post by **Dinesh** » Wed Dec 11, 2013 1:41 pm

142laser wrote:Oh the photons are totally free Phil

Well, Phil, the photons are not totally free, but they're pretty cheap.
We pay 16c/kW hr for our electricity. The lexel takes 230V and I run it at 25A. Thus, the cost of running the laser for one hour, C = (230x25x0.16)/1000 = 92c/hour of power. The 488 line runs at about 400mW, so the number of photons/hour is

N = (3600x0.4)/hf = 3.56x(10)^21

Thus, my photons cost per hour

C' = N/C = 0.92/(3.56x(10)^21) = $0.258x(10)^(-21)
Or 25 thousandth, billionth, billionth of a cent (approximately)! A real bargain at today's prices. Too bad you can't return the off-mode ones !

PS This is the kind of tongue-in-cheek calculations I like to do. So, don't take it too seriously (but the numbers are correct).

jsfisher · Post by **jsfisher** » Wed Dec 11, 2013 3:08 pm

Dinesh wrote:PS This is the kind of tongue-in-cheek calculations I like to do. So, don't take it too seriously (but the numbers are correct).

Oh, I don't know about that highlighted part. Twenty-five amperes, sure, but probably into a reactive load. Power factor of maybe 0.85? You're padding your expenses a bit, me thinks....

<...also tongue-in-cheek...>

Dinesh · Post by **Dinesh** » Wed Dec 11, 2013 5:24 pm

jsfisher wrote: You're padding your expenses a bit, me thinks...

Don't tell the IRS. They'll want their tax refund back!

Jeffrey Weil · Post by **Jeffrey Weil** » Wed Dec 11, 2013 6:51 pm

Dinesh, I have no sympathy for you. I'm running a He/Cd. Just the cost of the retube is $7 an hour. That doesn't even include electricity!

Dinesh · Post by **Dinesh** » Thu Dec 12, 2013 10:25 am

Jeez, Jeff, sorry about that! Maybe when they figure out this teleportation stuff, I can teleport some of my spare photons to you. Of course, I'll be very careful not to let a fly get into the teleporter.

Jeffrey Weil · Post by **Jeffrey Weil** » Thu Dec 12, 2013 3:40 pm

Thanks but your photons are too long. I need shorter ones for resist. Can you squeeze them down a bit?