Laser and Laminar flow a similar concept respectively ?

[Erina]

Would it be fair to say that there is a similar approach in thinking between Laminar flow and how a laser behaves i.e. all things “pulling together”.

I understand Laminar flow to be fluid particles following in smooth adjacent layers with little or no mixing. Whilst optical light waves pass in a coherent frequency and waveform to focus light on to a tight spot, essentially “all pulling together”.

How can the two definitions be brought together ?

I tried looking this up from the water side of things, and came across diffusion when paired with fluid flow, is this how flow is measured i.e. calculated by how much resistance it is met with, I don’t think light is measured like that ?

I’m not really sure, but I’m interested..

Edited August 20, 2021 by Erina

[swansont]

In laminar flow the different layers move at different speeds, which is decidedly not the case with light. Whether the light is focused depends on the optical conditions; it's not an inherent behavior of the light.

[bangstrom]

On 8/20/2021 at 7:21 AM, Erina said:

Would it be fair to say that there is a similar approach in thinking between Laminar flow and how a laser behaves i.e. all things “pulling together”.

I understand Laminar flow to be fluid particles following in smooth adjacent layers with little or no mixing. Whilst optical light waves pass in a coherent frequency and waveform to focus light on to a tight spot, essentially “all pulling together”.

How can the two definitions be brought together ?

I tried looking this up from the water side of things, and came across diffusion when paired with fluid flow, is this how flow is measured i.e. calculated by how much resistance it is met with, I don’t think light is measured like that ?

I’m not really sure, but I’m interested..

 

For an over simplified explanation, if a gas is heated until it nearly begins to glow, one atom can emit a light wave and that light wave can strike another atom stimulating it to emit a double amplitude light wave in the same direction. As the light beam continues moving through the excited gas, it grows stronger with every collision. This is light amplification by stimulated emission “LASE." What happens in a neon light and a gas laser is similar. 

A gas laser is different from a neon light in that it has a mirror on both ends of a straight tube. The vast majority of light that can be generated is light that can bounce back and forth between the two mirrors growing stronger with every passage. One of the mirrors is only mostly silvered, perhaps 90 percent silvered, so the light emitted from the partly silvered mirror is light that has been generated in parallel lines perpendicular to the two mirrors within. It is not random light that has been “pulled together” The light emitted by a laser is called “coherent” light. 
 

[swansont]

 

 

55 minutes ago, bangstrom said:

 

For an over simplified explanation, if a gas is heated until it nearly begins to glow, one atom can emit a light wave and that light wave can strike another atom stimulating it to emit a double amplitude light wave in the same direction. As the light beam continues moving through the excited gas, it grows stronger with every collision. This is light amplification by stimulated emission “LASE." What happens in a neon light and a gas laser is similar. 

A gas laser is different from a neon light in that it has a mirror on both ends of a straight tube. The vast majority of light that can be generated is light that can bounce back and forth between the two mirrors growing stronger with every passage. One of the mirrors is only mostly silvered, perhaps 90 percent silvered, so the light emitted from the partly silvered mirror is light that has been generated in parallel lines perpendicular to the two mirrors within. It is not random light that has been “pulled together” The light emitted by a laser is called “coherent” light. 
 

It's not just mirrors. A heated gas will not give you a population inversion, which is a requirement for lasing. A neon tube won't lase without adding helium, so you can get He excitations by electron collisions and transfer of this excitation energy to the neon.

More importantly, this has nothing to do with laminar flow.