STEM (3RD QUARTER MOTHERFUCKER)

We usually think of light as something we can see, like the light that comes from the Sun or a flashlight.
Yet scientists know that light is made up of electromagnetic waves.

There are many types of electromagnetic waves. We can see only some types of them. You're
probably already familiar with some electromagnetic waves, such as ultraviolet waves. They can
burn your skin. Other types include microwaves, radar, and radio and TV waves.

Radio and TV waves are two types of Electromagnetic waves.

Different electromagnetic waves have different wavelengths. The closer together the waves are, the
more energy they have. Waves are made up of crests and troughs. Each wavelength is measured by the
distance between the crests, or peaks.

X-ray waves are similar to light waves. Yet X-ray waves are different in that they're much closer
together, have a higher frequency, and have more energy . X-rays have so much energy that they're used
by Radiologists to look through your skin and muscles to take images of your bones.

Infrared light emits another kind of wave.

It has less energy and a lower frequency than an ordinary light wave. The human eye can't detect
infrared light. However, some insects, such as bees, can. The insects can't see the light that humans can
see, yet infrared vision allows them to "see" heat and to identify objects by temperature.

A Meteorologist uses infrared technology to look for hot and cold spots in weather patterns.

Laser stands for "light amplification by stimulated emission of  radiation." Lasers are a special, very
focused kind of light. Lasers are measured in nanometers (nm).

Ordinary white light is made up of a mixture of different wavelengths that travel in different directions.
For this reason white light is called incoherent light. Lasers are different from ordinary white light.

Coherent Light
Laser light waves are not jumbled together. Instead, the crest of each wave matches the crest
of all the other waves. Thus, laser light is called coherent light.

One Color
White light has many different wavelengths, which causes our eyes to see different colors. Yet
laser light produces waves of only one length and is monochromatic. Laser light looks like a
single, pure beam of color.

Dispersion
If you shine a white light through a glass prism, it will split into a rainbow of separate colors.
This is called dispersion. Each color has a different wavelength and is bent at a slightly different
angle by the prism.

Directing Lasers
The same isn't true of laser light. Since it produces waves of only one length, it leaves the prism
as a single, straight beam. Prisms and mirrors are used to bend laser beams and to direct them.

Ordinary light (left) waves spread out, or diverge, as they travel. As a result, the light beam becomes
bigger and dimmer. Yet laser light (right) waves are different. Even over very long distances, they diverge
much less as they travel.

Far-Reaching Light
If a high-powered laser beam were pointed into space, a satellite or space shuttle could easily
detect it at 200 miles above the Earth! 

Water cannot bend a laser light. – False

Light acts like both a wave and a particle. – True
It is a relatively safe practice to direct a laser light into your eye. - False
Light can travel only in straight lines. – False
Waves are made up of hills and valleys.– False
A lens that curves out is called a convex lens.- True
Mirrors are used to direct lasers for light shows and bar code scanners- True
"Laser" is "light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation." – True
The focal length of a lens is the distance from the light source to the lens.- False
Laser light is visible when it passes through water- False
Lasers are monochromatic; that is, they emit only one color.- True
Light piping is the primary principle of fiber optics.- True

DAY 2
When lasers were created in 1960, scientists joked that they were a solution looking for a
problem. The scientists thought lasers wouldn't have any practical applications. Yet time has
proven them wrong.

Lasers are used in the field of medicine. Surgeons sometimes use lasers like a scalpel when they operate.
Lasers can cut more accurately than a scalpel. They can destroy unhealthy cells and mend blood vessels. 

Lasers are also used for surgery in parts of the body that are difficult to reach with a knife. For example,
when surgery is necessary to re-attach the retina of the eye.

In addition, lasers are often used in plastic surgery--and even to remove tattoos!

Lasers are used in stores to read bar codes. Bar codes are found on the side of virtually every package
sold today. The bar code is called the UPC, or Universal Price Code. The laser is linked to a computer that
Identifies the product and gives its price. This type of information can also be used to tell store
managers when they need to order more of a product.

Lasers can mark a perfectly straight path. Structural Engineers use lasers when they dig tunnels through
mountains or under oceans. 

Lasers are also used by Surveyors to determine the incline, decline, and turning angles of plots of land. 

A Dentist's laser drill sends bursts of laser light through a flexible fiber-optic cable. The cable directs the
laser beam onto its target, much like the stream of water directed the laser beam in your experiment.
When this beam of energy hits the moisture on a tooth, the water is rapidly vaporized. This creates a
shock wave that neatly clears out the cavity. And it's virtually painless!

Aerospace Engineers design laser-guided missiles to attack tanks and helicopters. These missiles are
called Enhanced Fiber-Optic Guided Missiles. The slow-flying missiles feed infrared visual images back to
the gunners. The gunners can then pick targets for the missiles to hit.

Lasers are used in the communications industry to send telephone signals and other data over fiber-
optic cables.

In the entertainment industry, lasers are used to read and write CDs and DVDs. They're also at work
during the performance of laser light shows.

How to Bend Light

Wouldn't it be great if your flashlight could shine around corners? Or if the headlights of your car could
shine around a bend? 

For a long time, scientists tried to figure out a way to manipulate light so that it didn't always have to
cast its beam in a straight line. If the light can be piped, many places could be lit up that couldn't before.
Finally, scientists figured out how to do this with lasers.

Although various light piping schemes were proposed, none received much attention until 1870. A
British physicist named John Tyndall was able to curve a light beam by guiding it through water.

Tyndall did this by running water through a pipe that he was shining light through. When the water
came out the other end, it curved down. Tyndall saw that the light rays also curved with the water. So
he determined that the light was actually trapped inside the stream of water!

Tyndall's experiment demonstrated a principle known as total internal reflection. The principle states
that optical rays can't escape the material in which they're traveling. Total internal reflection was to
become very important in the development of fiber optics.

DAY 3
Lasers are on the cutting edge of technology and used in a variety of applications including
communication, cutting, welding, medicine, and entertainment.

One important application of fiber optics is telephone and data transmission. 

Today, most Internet data travels via fiber-optic cables. Telephone companies are gradually replacing
copper cables (left) with fiber-optic (right) ones. A single optic fiber used to have a thickness equal to 15
human hairs. Today they are only as thick as one human hair. Yet, it can carry as much data as a copper
cable that is as thick as a baseball bat!

Fiber-Optic Cables

A fiber-optic cable is made of many individual optic fibers. Each optic fiber is made of ultra pure glass
and covered with an outer layer called the cladding.  

Light is reflected by the cladding. This allows signals to travel through the glass fibers for long distances
even if the fibers are bent. These fibers may also be made of plastic. The cladding keeps the signals from
escaping.

Fiber-Optic Cables

A fiber-optic cable is made of many individual optic fibers. Each optic fiber is made of ultra pure glass
and covered with an outer layer called the cladding. 

Light is reflected by the cladding. This allows signals to travel through the glass fibers for long distances
even if the fibers are bent. These fibers may also be made of plastic. The cladding keeps the signals from
escaping.

For light to travel long distances, the core area of the cable must be very clear. This keeps the light from
being absorbed or obstructed. If this core area weren't clear, the light couldn't travel very far--much like
what happens when a lighthouse beam has to travel through fog.

Ultra-Pure Glass

The glass for the optic fibers is drawn, or formed, to create a threadlike substance called ultra-pure
glass.

DAY 4

Lenses are used to focus and direct both ordinary light and laser light. They're used to focus ordinary
light in cameras, eyeglasses, microscopes, and telescopes. They're used to focus laser light in laser
printers, color copiers, and in equipment for fiber-optic communications and robotics guidance.

Beam Shaping
The shapes of lenses influence how our eyes may see the world. Lenses control and shape beams of
light. 

There are four common lens shapes: 

 plano-convex,

 double-convex 

 plano-concave

 double-concave

This is a plano-convex lens. When parallel light rays pass through it, they bend toward the
center. Those rays farthest from the center of the lens are bent the most. This is caused
by refraction. The rays converge, or focus, on an imaginary line that runs through the center of
the lens. The distance from the lens to the point at which all the rays converge is called the focal
length.

The magnifying glass is a convex lens. Have you ever tried to burn a leaf with a magnifying glass? Move
the lens up and down until the sun's rays are tightly focused on one spot. The light becomes very
concentrated and extremely hot and eventually burns the leaf. The distance from the magnifying glass
to the spot where the leaf is being burnt is the focal length.

Concave and Convex

This is a concave lens. It's the opposite of the convex lens. It spreads light out, rather than focusing it in.
It creates an image that is hard to see. 

Refraction is the ability of a material to bend light rays. All lenses do this. Because of refraction, lenses
such as a magnifying glass can make small things look larger. Some lenses, such as those of a telescope,
make things that are far away appear closer.

Refraction happens when light rays cross the boundary between two materials, each of which has a
different refractive index. Water and air each have a different refractive index. So objects in water are
distorted.

DAY 5

You've learned about lasers, other types of light, and lenses. Today you're going to review what you've
learned. 

Laser light and ordinary light are both electromagnetic waves. Yet lasers differ from ordinary light in at
least three ways.

Coherent
Laser light waves are coherent. They move in step with one another and travel in the same direction. 

Ordinary light is incoherent because it has a mixture of different wavelengths. The wavelengths are all
jumbled together and traveling in different directions.

Monochromatic

Laser light produces waves of only one length and is monochromatic. It looks like a single, pure beam of
color. Ordinary white light is actually made up of several colors, and the light waves are all mixed
together.

Divergence

Laser light doesn't diverge, or spread out, as much as white light does as it travels. Nor does it grow
dimmer as much as white light does. White light spreads out and grows dimmer the farther it travels.

Total internal reflection is a special condition in which optical rays can't escape the material in which
they're traveling.

John Tyndall first demonstrated total internal reflection when he guided a light beam through a stream
of water. The beam of light followed the curve of the stream as it came out of a pipe.

Lenses are a special tool that can be used to focus and direct both ordinary light and laser light.

A convex lens (left) bulges outward like a ball and bends light inward toward the center. A concave lens
(right) curves inward like a bowl and bends light outward.

DAY 6

You've learned about lenses and materials that can deflect and refract light. Today you will be
introduced to how mirrors can direct and control lasers. Such mirrors are found in bar code scanners,
laser light shows, and in welding, drilling, and cutting equipment.
A mirror reflects light. For a surface to act like a mirror, it must be very smooth so as not to distort or
change the light it reflects. 

If you look at yourself in a good, smooth, flat mirror, the reflection you see is an accurate duplication
(left) of your image. But if you look into a poor-quality mirror--one that is bent or isn't smooth--it will
distort your image (right)

Household mirrors and shiny aluminum have a surface roughness less than one tenth of a visible
wavelength in height. The mirrors used with lasers are like household mirrors, but they're much
smoother. 
Household mirrors are usually flat. Mirrors used with lasers, however, can be of many shapes,
depending on where the laser needs to be reflected. 

Before you begin your hands-on exercise with mirrors, you need to be familiar with the following
terms: incident rays, reflected rays, angle of incidence, and angle of reflection.

Incident Rays

Incident rays are the optical rays traveling toward a surface.

Reflected Rays

Reflected rays are rays that have "bounced off" a surface.

Angle of Incidence

The angle of incidence is the angle formed between an incident ray and a perpendicular line drawn to
that surface at the point of incidence.

Angle of Reflection

The angle of reflection is the angle formed between a reflected ray of light leaving a surface and a
perpendicular line drawn to that surface at the point of incidence.

DAY 7

There are several kinds of lasers. Each laser has a different output wavelength. In this class, you're using
a helium-neon laser. This type of laser is commonly used to scan bar codes and to survey land. It's also
used in laboratories by Electronics Engineering Technicians.

Chemical Lasers

The military uses lasers to assist in guiding weapons to their targets. These "smart" weapons are very
accurate and help reduce unnecessary destruction.

Argon Laser

The argon laser is used in semiconductor manufacturing, medicine, and light shows.

Semiconductor

The semiconductor laser is used to manufacture audio compact discs and videodiscs, fiber-optic
telephone links, bar code scanning devices, and military range-finder equipment.

Carbon Dioxide

The carbon dioxide laser is used to cut almost any type of metal.
You can find lasers in CD players, at the grocery store, and even in the dentist's office. But who came up
with the idea to create a laser? Experiments with lasers began after researchers discovered the
properties of light. Yet it took many years of experimentation to develop a functioning laser.

Albert Einstein

Scientists were discussing the idea of lasers in the early part of this century. In 1917, Albert Einstein
theorized that he could stimulate atoms to emit light. Yet only many years later was anyone able to
make this happen.

Maser Invented

Charles Townes developed the maser in 1954. The term "maser" stands for "microwave amplification by
stimulated emission of radiation."

Masers stimulate atoms that give off microwaves. Microwaves are different from lasers. They are
invisible waves of energy, while lasers are visible waves of energy.

Laser Invented

Theodore Maiman observed the first laser in 1960. It was called an optical maser because it amplified
light, just as the maser amplified microwaves. 

Maiman's first laser produced only short, intense bursts of light. It was not until 1961 that the first
continuous laser beam was built.

Continuous Laser

Ali Javan developed a continuous laser beam by mixing helium and neon. It was called the helium-neon
gas laser. This laser could produce a stream of light that could travel for very long distances. You're using
a helium-neon laser in class.

DAY 8

Lasers also entertain us. Some special arcades include large areas where people can play laser tag. Laser
tag is a game in which participants use laser guns to shoot at targets worn by their opponents. It's a fun
way to play tag, and there are no arguments about whether you were tagged or not since a hit
generates a loud sound. 

Lasers are used in music concerts. As the audience listens to the music, lasers of different colors are
displayed on a screen, up in the sky, or at the audience. 

Planetariums use lasers to display designs on a screen that are synchronized with music.

DAY 9
Years before lasers were developed, Albert Einstein thought atoms could be stimulated to give off light.
Lasers share the same wave and particle properties that are similar to light. The smallest units of light,
called photons, act like particles. Each photon carries some light energy.

The Medium

Lasers are created in a special tube that has mirrors at each end. The tube is filled with something called
a medium, which is used to generate the laser beam. The medium can be a solid, liquid, or a gas such as
neon. Different mediums create lasers that differ in color and wavelength.

Excited Atoms

Inside the tube, atoms are stimulated by an electric current or bright light. When this happens, the
atoms become excited and release photon energy as light. The photons hit other atoms, and more
photons are released. The more photons that are released, the more light is produced.

DAY 10

In 1917, Albert Einstein proposed the idea of a laser, believing that atoms could be stimulated to give off
light. Yet it wasn't until 1960 that Theodore Maiman succeeded in actually observing the first laser. In
1961 Ali Javan developed a continuous laser beam

Mirrors can change the direction of a laser. For this to work well, the mirrors must be very smooth. If
not, the light will not be reflected accurately.

Light acts like both waves and particles. Light emits energy particles called photons. Lasers are created in
a special tube with mirrors at each end. The tube is filled with a medium that is used to generate the
laser beam.

Excited Photons

Inside the tube, atoms are stimulated with an electric current or bright light that releases photons, or
light energy. When the photons hit other atoms, they release more photons. As more and more atoms
are hit, an increased amount of light is produced.