An invention credited to Albert Einstein has revolutionized everything from industry to entertainment. That invention is the laser. What are some of the applications of this pioneering tool? Here are the top 5 uses to ponder.
1. Entertainment
Before lasers, if you wanted to watch a home movie, you had to insert a large VHS tape into a clunky VHS player. If you were lucky it was already rewound, but if not, you had to wait while the tape was physically wound back to the beginning. Now, with laser technology, you can instantly watch Blu-ray discs and even skip ahead to any spot with the touch of a button.
2. Office
Lasers have made office work easier too. Laser printers produce crisp graphics with brilliant colors. No more need to send your documents to a printer only to get them back a week or more later. Now you can print your own documents with the click of a mouse.
3. Industry
Metal cutting was wasteful and imprecise before manufacturers could cut out parts with laser cutting tools. A controlled beam can even trim layers of material to microscopic accuracy with the flat laser cutting process.
4. Medicine
Surgery has been enhanced with finely tuned lasers that can cut tissue, remove hair and slice apart kidney stones. If you had your vision restored with laser eye surgery, then you know how beneficial those tiny beams of light can be.
5. Communication
How can we communicate with the International Space Station without any wires or without waiting for long periods of time? Free-space optical communication, which uses lasers, allows for information to travel from earth to the ISS, the moon or even Mars at literally the speed of light.
These are just a few of the applications that utilize lasers. The next time you print a document, buy a fabricated metal tool, go to the doctor, or watch video footage from the Mars rover, remember that lasers helped make it all possible.