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DIY Laser Pistol Shoot 1MW Blasts
An anonymous reader writes "It doesn't get cooler than this — a German hacker put together a 1MW laser pistol capable of shooting straight through a razor blade with a single pulse. Quoting: 'Fitted with a Q-switched Nd:YAG laser, it fires off a 1 MW blast of infrared light once the capacitors have fully charged. The duration of the laser pulse is somewhere near 100ns, so he was unable to catch it on camera, but its effects are easily visible in whatever medium he has fired upon.'" Update: 03/17 18:22 GMT by T : Too bad; turns out it's "only" 1KW, rather than 1MW. I still want one.
Sweet. How long does it take to charge? IMMA FIRING MY LAZORS PEW PEW PEW
Now the next time I'm in Mos Eisley I can take care of that Guido problem.
I think Snookie would be more interested in a UV laser.
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
It's Greedo no Guido - he's Rodian not Italian.
panda eats, shoulds, and leaves?
"If still these truths be held to be
Self evident."
-Edna St. Vincent Millay
What he's saying is that at 1MW, it wouldn't shoot through just a razor, but probably through the wood behind the razor. And the bricks behind the wood. And the cinderblock wall behind the bricks. And the lead statue across the quad and the sign over the diner across the campus. Where he would stop for a burger.
Stormtroopers are excellent marksmen - what you see depicted in those Rebel propaganda videos is a tactic called "herding". Funnily enough the makers of the propaganda videos never show what happens after the stormtroopers have herded the scruffy nerf-herder rebels into their trap...
"Total destruction the only solution" - Bob Marley
Can I get a phased plasma rifle in a forty watt range?
That's exactly what I always say!
In a universe ... ruled by narrative causality ... one man ...