Academic Integrity: tutoring, explanations, and feedback — we don’t complete graded work or submit on a student’s behalf.

I\'m doing a project where I am taking a laser beam and sending it through a bea

ID: 1380397 • Letter: I

Question

I'm doing a project where I am taking a laser beam and sending it through a beam splitter. As I understand, approximately 50% of the light will go pass through and 50% will be reflected. So this means that half of the total energy of the beam will go one way, and the other half will go the other. The intensity must be halved right? I want to be able to keep on dividing it so that I keep getting twice the amount of laser beams that I have before that are 1/2 the intensity. I want to intersect all the laser beams together at a single point like a gamma knife. I want to demonstrate the gamma knife idea with the aid of some medium, and show that a point of light will be where the intersection is.

My question is, will a point of light be present? Will I be successful in doing this?

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

What arrangement of mirrors will allow for me to direct all the beams to an intersection point?

Is it possible to use one beam splitter and lots of mirrors to repeatedly send it through the same beam splitter so that I won't have to buy multiple beams splitters?

Of course I want to use the least amount of mirrors and beam splitters to save money...

Can you guys help me think of the arrangement of mirrors to achieve this?

Explanation / Answer

How about just a focusing lens?

Shine the laser through it and move a card back and forth around the focus to see how the beam area shrinks and the intensity grows.

If you really want discrete beams, you could use a mask right before/after the lens to block out all the light but a few circles.
what would be by far the cheapest and easiest solution, and more closely resemble the real gamma knife would be to just buy a dozen or so cheap laser pointers from a dollar store. Then just arrange them so their beams intersect

Hire Me For All Your Tutoring Needs
Integrity-first tutoring: clear explanations, guidance, and feedback.
Drop an Email at
drjack9650@gmail.com
Chat Now And Get Quote