Laser Trivia Quiz Questions and Answers

Laser trivia quiz questions with answers about Lasers

Laser Trivia Quiz Questions and Answers

What is a laser?
A: A laser is a device that emits light through a process of optical amplification based on the stimulated emission of electromagnetic radiation.

The term "laser" originated as an acronym for what?
A: Light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation.

The first laser was built in what year?
A: 1960.

Who built it?
A: Theodore H. Maiman at Hughes Research Laboratories.

It was based on theoretical work by whom?
A: Charles Hard Townes and Arthur Leonard Schawlow.

A laser differs from other sources of light in that it emits light how?
A: Coherently, spatially and temporally.

Lasers are characterized according to what?
A: Their wavelength in a vacuum.

Most "single wavelength" lasers actually produce radiation in several modes having slightly differing what?
A: Frequencies (wavelengths), often not in a single polarization.

Although temporal coherence implies monochromaticity, there are lasers that emit what?
A: A broad spectrum of light or emit different wavelengths of light simultaneously.

In the early technical literature, especially at Bell Telephone Laboratories, the laser was called what?
A: An optical maser.

A laser that produces light by itself is technically a what?
A: An optical oscillator rather than an optical amplifier as suggested by the acronym.

The back-formed verb to lase is frequently used in the field, meaning what?
A: To produce laser light.

When a laser is operating it is said to be what?
A: Lasing.

The most common type of laser uses feedback from a what?
A: An optical cavity—a pair of mirrors on either end of laser.

Typically one of the two mirrors is what?
A: Partially transparent.

Some of the light does what through this mirror?
A: Escapes.

Depending on the design of the cavity the light coming out of the laser may do what?
A: Spread out or form a narrow beam.

Most practical lasers contain additional elements that affect properties of the emitted light, such as what?
A: The polarization, wavelength, and shape of the beam.

When lasers were invented in 1960, they were called what?
A: A solution looking for a problem.

Since then, they have become what?
A: Ubiquitous.

The first use of lasers in the daily lives of the general population was what?
A: The supermarket barcode scanner, introduced in 1974.

The laserdisc player, introduced in 1978, was the first successful consumer product to include what?
A: A laser.

Lasers are used to treat cancer by doing what?
A: Shrinking or destroying tumors or precancerous growths.

They are most commonly used to treat what kind of cancers?
A: Superficial cancers that are on the surface of the body or the lining of internal organs.

Lasers are more precise than traditional what?
A: Surgery methods and cause less damage, pain, bleeding, swelling, and scarring.

A disadvantage is that surgeons must have what?
A: Specialized training.

Lasers of even a fraction of a watt in power can produce immediate, permanent what?
A: Vision loss.

Incidents of pilots being exposed to lasers while flying have prompted aviation authorities to do what?
A: Implement special procedures to deal with such hazards.

Laser weapons capable of directly damaging or destroying a target in combat are what?
A: Still in the experimental stage.

The general idea of laser-beam weaponry is to what?
A: Hit a target with a train of brief pulses of light.

The rapid evaporation and expansion of the surface causes what?
A: Shockwaves that damage the target.

The power needed to project a high-powered laser beam of this kind is what?
A: Beyond the limit of current mobile power technology.

Throughout the 2000s, the United States Air Force worked on the Boeing YAL-1, which was a what?
A: An airborne laser mounted in a Boeing 747.

It was intended to be used to do what?
A: To shoot down incoming ballistic missiles over enemy territory.

In March 2009, Northrop Grumman claimed that its engineers had successfully built and tested a solid state laser capable of producing a 100-kilowatt beam, powerful enough to do what?
A: To destroy an airplane.

Ultimately, the project was deemed to be what?
A: Infeasible.

In recent years, who has taken an interest in lasers?
A: Hobbyists.

Lasers used by hobbyists are generally of what class?
A: Class IIIa or IIIb.

Even the first laser was recognized as being what?
A: Potentially dangerous.

Theodore Maiman characterized the first laser as having a power of what?
A: One "Gillette" as it could burn through one Gillette razor blade.