So everyone and their mother has a laser pointer

[quakerboy]

a standard old red dot laser pointer.

A select few have a green laser pointer now.

A few even have a violet laser pointer.

I can report that if you take all three and shine them in the same spot and look at it, you will end up with spots in your vision.


I wonder what happens if you get one of the blue ones, and the new orange ones, and do the same? Might it start a white hole? might it cause permanent vision impairment? Who knows. But some day, when they too are available on ebay for $5 shipped, I plan to find out. If you drop me a line now, I will make a point of giving you 24 hours notice when the event is about to occur, so that you can make your peace with existence, just in case.

[femmocrat]

1. I don't have one. I didn't even know they came in different colors.

What do you use them for, other than making presentations?

[gmoney]

2. It's the ultimate cat toy...

They'll chase the red dot to the point of exhaustion...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZfK8ulOIt0 ...one example out of dozens

[femmocrat]

4. Oh! LOL

No cats here, just dogs. Thanks.

[quakerboy]

7. some dogs will as well

do your dogs take interest in the random bugs that enter their lives?

[AngryOldDem]

14. Our 7-month-old Dachshund loves the laser pointer.

She could probably chase it until she drops from exhaustion. When it goes away she'll stand and look at whoever has it, tail going a mile a minute, waiting for it to come back. It's handy for when she gets loose upstairs -- we whip the pointer out and just go from room to room until we find her -- or she finds us.

And yes, she is also constantly on the hunt for crickets, grasshoppers and other critters when she's outside.

[gmoney]

15. It's also useful if you like being tackled by the Secret Service

...or other security guards, as the laser sights on rifles also use a similar red dot for targeting. Avoid training it on people at public events.

There was also a trend (immortalized on Seinfeld) where people would take pointers into movie theaters and be annoying by pointing it at the screen, especially at breasts or butts or whatever. Or George Costanza.

See? Many, many uses!

[pokerfan]

5. That they will

[siligut]

8. I bought one for our kitty...

She was excited to play, but caught on and gave me a dirty look for trying to trick her. I felt bad, I didn't even think of it as a trick, but it is.

[Odin2005]

21. LOL, my mom's cat must be too smart, she loses intrest in it quick.

She'll chase the light for a few seconds, and then she realizes where it is coming from and then goes "screw this, I've got better things to do"! :rofl:

[quakerboy]

6. to put a

bright dot on things. for under $5 on ebay, I couldn't resist. a cheap toy fix.

I notice that the 532nm green laser is significantly brighter in appearance than any of the others. The 405nm violet is, of the three i have, by far the dimmest. The green I can point out at night, and see the dot on the furthest building visible from my house. The violet, I have trouble finding the dot across the street.

I am very curious about the 473 nm blue, and the new 593.5nm that I have seen. But seeing as those still run $300 each, They are nowhere in my near future.

[RandomThoughts]

3. Crossing the streams, Bridges :)

Also the multidimensional story with Q in Star Trek.

[kentauros]

9. I don't have a L.A.S.E.R. pointer,

but I do have a 6x8 Wacom tablet :D



(.that is not my hand or forearm.)

[OneTenthofOnePercent]

10. I have red, green, violet, and blue.

The blue pointer is 1000mW in power. At night it's like a friggen lightsaber. It's so bright that you need protective glasses just to LOOK at the dot in a room or you'll damage your vision. Forget about looking into the beam (instant blindness).

The red purple and green are all fairly benign clocking in at less than <200mW.

This is purple I built myself from bluray drive parts and machined stainless parts (it has high & low power buttons):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W3fiLxBPb58

[quakerboy]

11. I was going to say,

cant you burn things at that power? Mine are all only the 5mw cheapies. I can afford $5 on ebay.

[Capn Sunshine]

12. DON'T CROSS THE STREAMS!

[OneTenthofOnePercent]

13. Yeah, they can all torch things for the most part.

but you have to focus the beam to a point instead of a beam. Well, the 1000mW blue can burn without even being in focus... it's nuts.
Burning lasers are cheaper than you might think. Burning reds are about $40 but and you can build them for about $25 in parts. I built my violet in the video for about $60 and used top notch parts and machined the body myself.~100mW greens can be purchased for ~$70 and built for less. The blue was the only really expensive one and even then it was 1000mW for $190.

But if you just want a colorful pointer then the $5 ebay pointers are unbeatable. I could NEVER let my pets chase my pointers or they be blinded. But also be careful with those cheap ebay pointers... they are often pumping out much more power than advertised. The blues, I've read, can put out 10-15 mW and the green pointers around 20-30 mW. The "safe" limit is 5mW. Plus the cheap greens leak ALOT of infrared light (sometimes more infrared than green). The problem with infrared is that your eyes cant see it and it's damaging.

Green laser pointer hazard: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/08/100804110207.htm

Shooting the Blue at night in my backyard @ a fence 50ft away (no flash or overexposure):

[ChoralScholar]

16. Oh.... I read laser PRINTER.

[MiddleFingerMom]

17. "So everyone and their mother has a laser pointer." Well... you were HALF-right...

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...as I didn't have one, but MiddleFingerMomMom did...
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...and she could keep me entertained for HOURS chasing that damn thing.
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[Bucky]

18. I like to point them in my student's eyes just to see them stagger about blind later on.

I can't get sued for that, can I?

[quakerboy]

19. As long as you do it

2 at the same time, so they dont have any chance of id'ing you as the one that dun it, seems safe enough.

[nolabear]

20. Don't have one, don't want one, but would really appreciate the notice.

Thank you. Sir.

[baldguy]

22. .