The Texas Petawatt Laser 174
Roland Piquepaille notes the hype surrounding what the University of Texas at Austin is calling the world's most powerful laser. During a tenth of a femtosecond this laser is 2,000 times more powerful than all the power plants in the US, and is brighter than sunlight on the surface of the Sun. On his own blog Roland points out that UT's is not the first petawatt laser; that distinction belongs to a system installed at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in 1996.
We're all wondering... (Score:5, Funny)
Pish. (Score:3, Funny)
(Just don't go glaring at yourself in the mirror...)
Sorry boys (Score:5, Funny)
Re:We're all wondering... (Score:4, Funny)
But... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Pish. (Score:3, Funny)
Time duration? (Score:1, Funny)
Uses? (Score:3, Funny)
Lets get ready to cook some popcorn!
For a tenth of a femtosecond... (Score:2, Funny)
But seriously,I have been electrocuted by 20,000V at significant current several times. But only for a few hundred nanoseconds at a time. Sparks plugs rock.
Re:We're all wondering... (Score:4, Funny)
"Kent, this is Jesus.... And stop playing with yourself..."
Re:We're all wondering... (Score:5, Funny)
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/d3/BFG9000doom2.jpg [wikimedia.org]
Re:We're all wondering... (Score:4, Funny)
Thanks. Another slashdotter crushes another one of my hopes and dreams. Jerk
Re:Pish. (Score:4, Funny)
Re:We're all wondering... (Score:2, Funny)
Have they tried levitating a squirrel yet?
Re:Wrong about the Sun and petawatts (Score:4, Funny)
Re:We're all wondering... (Score:4, Funny)
Re:So what? (Score:4, Funny)
True, what's the most this laser could do, cut the Earth in half? Pretty tame compared with the LHC recreating the Big Bang and destroying the universe as we know it.
I hear Pacific Tech is right behind them (Score:4, Funny)
Correction: (Score:5, Funny)
Fixed it for you.