Calling on Lasers: How Do I Shot Laser Beams?

How do lasers work? Specifically, if one could emit a laser from one's eyes, what would that look like to onlookers, and what effects would that laser have? Are there multiple effects dependent on many factors?

Goddamn thee, my humanities degree!

Remember the first principle of optics (which I just made up): Light rays are not visible, unless they pass through dust or mist. Even visible-light lasers are not visible as beams; the only visible part will be either the dot at the end, or the emitter. (if it happens to be shooting into your eye.)

Also, lasers are basically coherent beams of energy. What happens when that energy hits something is usually (you can do other things if the things are small enough and you know what you're doing) heat the target up. How much heating depends on how much energy the laser is emitting, and that depends on how much energy the laser is being fed.

This looks like a job for Project Rho!

So lasers fry, they do not do kinetic damage? Do they cut?

World building my friend...

Eh, it's more of a technical question. Not really world-building; I'm trying to use physics, not invent it!

If you melt/vaporize a line across an object, this would cause it to fall apart. Lasers are used for cutting.

They don't do kinetic damage. You can however generate thrust with them because of the vaporizing/exploding material.

If you insist on doing pew-pew lasers in your story and you want to sound slightly more realistic, you could have it that the laser part is just for targeting, and the bit that causes the heat/cutting/explosions is invisible. (What the heating/cutting/'sploding bit is, I am uncertain.)

Mr Cales: That doesn't matter, writer's block is the section for questions about technical writing, while world building is for setting development, regardless of whether elements of those setting are real or not real. Plus shooting lasers out of one's eyes sounds pretty fantastic to me.

My apologies. Can we get a mod to jump this to World-Building?

Getting lasers, or anything else, to shoot out of your eyes is actually very difficult. Eyes are designed to take in as much light as possible and focus it inward; even if the light got back out, the lens and cornea would completely diffuse it—you'd never have a beam of parallel rays (which is what a laser is). You'd just end up with regular light.

Of course that's technically; you have every right to call it Art Major Physics.

Or, you know, Magic... it's a fantasy setting...