quote:

Originally posted by Virginia_L I got em babe! Thanks heaps for that, you know your a star!

Good, sweetheart!! See you there with your minimal bells on

quote:

Originally posted by G`Dave Nope, there's nothing to split really, white light for example contains alot of different colours of light (the colour of light, is directly related to its wavelength) and the different colours diffract at different rates (*insert technical shit here* but I'll spare you). So because the components diffract at different rates, they seperate, and you get the rainbow effect. Laser light however, consists only of one wavelength of light, in a standard green laser's case, its 532nm (that's nano-meters, a billionth of a meter) so you can't seperate it. It's like trying to seperate the components of.. air say... nitrogen, oxygen, argon.. whatever. easily done, but you can't seperate the components of oxygen... cause its just oxygen. Sorry for the shit analogy.

Your ideas are correct, but the object is wrong.

You're not looking for a prism, you're looking for what's called a diffraction grating. Basically a piece of transparent material with many scratches (tens to hundreds per mm) on it's surface will split the laser up into many beams.

So if you were to hang up say ten small pieces of diffraction grating up in front of a laser, say on the lighting rigs around the room, some about a metre some on the other side of the room, then programmed the laser with their locations in the room and could call up a scan pattern to light them up, the laser would stay in a straight beam then split up into many beams as it passes through.

Year 12 Physics.

m*(lambda)=d*sin(theta)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diffraction_grating



http://www.rhunt.f9.co.uk/Experimen...ction_Page1.htm

But where could you get one of these from you ask? you know those glasses that people often have around during fireworks displays? They are a diffraction grating. If you shone the laser through one of these you would get it splitting up into many beams. The beam pattern would be different depending on what the scratch pattern was on the glasses. The glasses that ive seen have an octagonal scratch pattern, so there appears to be eight coloured light 'spikes' radiating out from the central spot.

For even better scattering, if you were to place a small area (say 3cmx3cm of a diffraction grating and place a mirror parallel and spaced about 1 cm behind the grating, you would have one central beam shine in and then split into eight beams as it passes through then reflect off the mirror and those eight beams split into 8x8, 64 beams. Awesome for the back of a dancefloor don't you think? maybe see if you can find any at any fireworks shops in melb or maybe drop into an optometrist and ask the receptionist, who probably won't know what you're on about, but ask the actual optometrist and they may be able to point you in the right direction for a optics supplier that may sell cheap diffraction gratings. Either that or as a last ditch attempt, you might be able to make one by printing with a laser printer on an overhead transparency, a bitmap with alternating vertical lines printed at the highest resolution so there's as lines per mm but not beyond the res of the printer so it just prints a solid block of grey.

Just noticed ppl talking bout it and thought id help out.

Andy.

___________________

These glasses are what im talking about.

___________________

This is what a scientific diffraction grating looks like, linear because the pattern results in a single line of split beams. Sorry bout the big pic.

Have a look at the laser specs again. Linear burst diffraction filters, thats what makes the laser split up into the many beams in the laser itself. And i found the glasses for sale on the net for about a dollar a pair. easy.

___________________

I think you have all watched the Dark Crystal way too many times!

___________________
www.clubsguide.com.au

quote:

Originally posted by PulseFusion Your ideas are correct, but the object is wrong.

your sig is the right size, but your sig is the wrong size (too bigsy)

Sunrise.

___________________
picturerise.com

I love you too

___________________

Next time i think i might just forget mentioning the laser

I am by no means refuting that laser light can't be split into multiple beams by diffraction grating (being in essence, a series of very small prisms, correct?), or by any other means for that matter.

I am simply saying, that doing so will not cause the components 'colors' to seperate, so you cannot achieve a rainbow of colours from laser light, as you can with white light.

quote:

Originally posted by batemanscott Next time i think i might just forget mentioning the laser

I am sick of the "laser" bring on the naked Bateman!!

*waits for Sezzy's ears to prick up*

___________________
www.clubsguide.com.au

quote:

Originally posted by G`Dave I am by no means refuting that laser light can't be split into multiple beams by diffraction grating (being in essence, a series of very small prisms, correct?), or by any other means for that matter. I am simply saying, that doing so will not cause the components 'colors' to seperate, so you cannot achieve a rainbow of colours from laser light, as you can with white light.

Well, diffraction gratings work similarly to prisms, but not by being small prisms, they actually work by blocking and allowing light in a particular pattern. But yes, you are 100% correct saying that laser light is monochromatic and you cannot 'separate' pure laser light. Gdave, i wasn't disputing what u said, just your post was the biggest and the one i clicked on when i was reading that section of this thread and i thought that it would be cool if someone actually did hang stuff up to split the beams...

Anyway, good luck with the night guys, if I could, I'd be there

___________________