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Asked by edwardcullen to Philippa, Jamie, Emily on 19 Jun 2011.
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Jamie Gallagher answered on 16 Jun 2011:
Hi edward,
Well it all depends. I have a couple of lasers at home. They are class 2, this means they are quite safe. They cannot really do any damage. I could shine it on you and you wouldn’t even notice.
If we went up to a class 3, you would want to be careful of your eyes- they could focus the light down into a very bright spot that could blind you.
Then we can carry on up the scale- we have a couple of class 4 lasers in the lab- if you used this carelessly it could do you some damage. It would burn you. Potentially burn a hole in you but it wouldnt happen right away.
The most famous laser mischief was Goldfinger wanting to cut james bond in two. this is science fiction but I dont see why we couldnt do it really.
A laser is just very concentrated and highly ordered energy.
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Emily Robinson answered on 17 Jun 2011:
I volunteered for a pain experiment once which zapped your arm with a laser. I had to tell the lady when the laser felt like it was hot fat hitting my arm, so it was painful but not so much that I flinched. This was my pain threshold and she used that intensity for the rest of the experiment so I wouldn’t be in too much pain. I wouldn’t want to ever feel the laser if she had turned it up full as you could get badly burnt. But I had fun doing the experiment!
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Philippa Demonte answered on 19 Jun 2011:
@edwardcullen As Jamie says, it depends on the intensity. Lasers are used safely but in a controlled manner in certain types of surgery, such as eye surgery, and by dentists to do teeth whitening.
Having said that, I’ve been told that laser pointers are no longer sold in shops to the general public after several school children were blinded by them!
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