One petawatt laser sets new record

[Ladewig]

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/04/080408085449.htm

ScienceDaily (Apr. 9, 2008) — The Texas Petawatt laser reached greater than one petawatt of laser power on Monday morning, March 31, making it the highest powered laser in the world, Todd Ditmire, a physicist at The University of Texas at Austin, said. The Texas Petawatt is the only operating petawatt laser in the United States.

Ditmire says that when the laser is turned on, it has the power output of more than 2,000 times the output of all power plants in the United States. (A petawatt is one quadrillion watts.) The laser is brighter than sunlight on the surface of the sun, but it only lasts for an instant, a 10th of a trillionth of a second (0.0000000000001 second).

Science is pretty cool.

 

[rcronk]

So that's what brought down WTC 7.

 

[Madalch]

Now how do we aim it at Sylvia Browne?

 

[RecoveringYuppy]

...it has the power output of more than 2,000 times the output of all power plants in the United States. (A petawatt is one quadrillion watts.) The laser is brighter than sunlight on the surface of the sunThe laser is brighter than sunlight on the surface of the sun...

That's a dramatic comparison. But another comparison you can make is that the burst from that laser contains the same energy as the light from an average lightbulb operating for a single second.

 

[Almo]

Given the amount of time it's on, that's still amazing.

 

[RecoveringYuppy]

Yes, it is.

 

[TheDoLittle]

Looks like they turned on the Hadron Collider and created a mini-Death Star.

 

[MattusMaximus]

Go Lazors!!!

 

[Molinaro]

How long till they can mount it on a shark?

 

[TheDoLittle]

How long till they can mount it on a shark?

After they all stop giggling at the name "The Alan Parson's Project" and "Operation Wang Chung".

 

[cloudshipsrule]

Excellent! My fusion reactor dream will be realized within the next decade.

 

[Complexity]

Very cool.

My evil plan progresses apace.

 

[a_unique_person]

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/04/080408085449.htm



Science is pretty cool.

I can get an instant tan in 0.0000000000001 of a second? I'll buy that.

 

[wahrheit]

They will create mini-supernovas, tabletop stars and very high-density plasmas that mimic exotic stellar objects known as brown dwarfs.

How cool is that!

 

[Wildy]

After they all stop giggling at the name "The Alan Parson's Project" and "Operation Wang Chung".

But that also depends on whether they are going to start "Operation Bananarama" ASAP, or leave it until later.

 

[TX50]

I wonder what their electricity bill is like.

 

[H'ethetheth]

That's a dramatic comparison. But another comparison you can make is that the burst from that laser contains the same energy as the light from an average lightbulb operating for a single second.

Good point. Incidentally, 100 Joules of energy is also about 4 mg of peanutbutter.

I wonder what their electricity bill is like.

Not that unusual, by the looks of it.

 

[RecoveringYuppy]

Good point. Incidentally, 100 Joules of energy is also about 4 mg of peanutbutter.

I used to frequent a new agey forum where there was a lot of talk about "life energy". I gave up on arguing with them directly and started posting recipes that had the nutritional energy content spelled out in kilowatt-hours.

 

[H'ethetheth]

 

[Molinaro]

Very cool.

My evil plan progresses apace.

Hey that better not be the same evil plan as the one I first posted about 4 years ago. Once I get my hands on that laser I will finally be able to carve my initials onto the face of the moon for all to see for all eternity!