- #1
Mephisto
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I was reading an article about lasers, in specific about CO2 lasers, and it had a sentence like this:
"The reason that the CO2 laser is so dangerous is because it emits laser light in the infrared and microwave region of the spectrum. Infrared radiation is heat, and this laser basically melts through whatever it is focused upon."
what confused me was that "infrared radiation is heat"... i don't exactly understand how you could say that... I mean, IR light is just an EM wave, and heat is basically a measure of kinetic energy. Why wouldn't any other laser frequency work for the melting? what is so special about IR? I heard the two connected many times now, but I'm unclear about the connection.
could anyone try to explain?
thank you,
-meph
"The reason that the CO2 laser is so dangerous is because it emits laser light in the infrared and microwave region of the spectrum. Infrared radiation is heat, and this laser basically melts through whatever it is focused upon."
what confused me was that "infrared radiation is heat"... i don't exactly understand how you could say that... I mean, IR light is just an EM wave, and heat is basically a measure of kinetic energy. Why wouldn't any other laser frequency work for the melting? what is so special about IR? I heard the two connected many times now, but I'm unclear about the connection.
could anyone try to explain?
thank you,
-meph