Like a Laser Beam
A few days ago I read a piece by one Ellen Sterling;* I don't know who she is but I know a bit more about her after reading what she wrote. Her subject was someone else unknown to me named Lior Suchard. Of Suchard she says
At 27, Suchard is the heir apparent to Uri Geller, the self-described Israeli "mystifier" who gained fame bending spoons seemingly only with the power of his mind. In fact, Suchard was the winner on a TV show that designated The New Uri Geller.
The new Uri Geller! I'm underwhelmed, but this is not the part I wanted specifically to mock. Nor was it where Ms. Sterling revealed her "unbiased" opinion:
Over the years, there have been "debunkers" like James Randi [the original had a link to a YouTube video, evidently of Randi debunking, but the URL was "malformed") who said he can explain exactly how Geller does what he does. I am not choosing sides. I've seen demonstrations of the power of the human mind and I am a believer….
I'm interested in hearing two things. One would be her insistence on ignoring explanations of "exactly how Geller does what he does" — I'm sure she acknowledges "higher truths" beyond the merely rational and scientific. Two would be her odd idea that she's "not choosing sides", and yet she's seen the "power of the human mind" and she is a believer. Phew. I hate to think of "choosing sides" might have led to.
No, the bit I wanted to mock was from the beginning of her piece where she quotes Mr. Suchard
Lior Suchard says it's all about focus. "It's the difference between a flashlight and a laser beam. Both are light, but the laser beam is much more focused so you can see more. If you can focus your mind, you can do the same."
This, I'm afraid, does not turn me into a believer on spoon bending and the power of the mind; it merely convinces me that Mr. Suchard has no idea what he's talking about.
While it is not true that a flashlight and a laser beam are both light, it is true that the light from a flashlight and a laser beam are both light. However, while there is a world of difference between the two beams of light, it has nothing to do with "focus".
The light from a flashlight and the light from a laser are produced in markedly different ways. Yes, both involve energy being released by atoms in the form of photos, i.e., light. In a flashlight the photons are released through incandescence: heat the atoms in the light-bulb's filament to such a degree that the filament glows, which means that the atoms, energized by heat, spontaneously give off energy in the form of photons.
On the other hand, in a laser the source atoms are carefully energized by a certain amount and then all of the atoms are stimulated to release a photon‡ (typically) by a passing light-wave in a specially built resonant cavity, which lets some of the created light escape: the laser beam.
The photons in a laser beam typically have very nearly the same wavelength — most lasers you see will have a very clear, characteristic color. Flashlights and other incandescent lamps have a very wide spread to their photon's wavelengths, so they look more-or-less yellowish white. The photons in a laser beam typically are all "in phase" (the peaks and troughs of their waves line up), whereas those coming off the incandescent filament do not, their phases are all jumbled up and random.
Laser cavities are not designed to "focus" the beam; flashlights usually have a parabolic reflector behind the lightbulb (as in, say, car headlamps) to try to create a parallel "beam" of light, and indeed most of the light comes out of a flashlight in a beamish way. In this sense the flashlight would be considered the more "focused" of the two, not the laser beam, although laser beams can be focused with additional optics and often are.
As for saying "…the laser beam is much more focused so you can see more…", I have no idea what that means. How much the eye can see typically depends on 1) the intensity of the light illuminating the object one is looking at; and 2) the sensitivity of the eye to the color of the light doing the illuminating. Oh, wait, perhaps Mr. Suchard means "seeing" as something more transcendent than merely "looking" with one's eyes?
Oh dear. Well, all of this is just my long-winded way of saying that I'm not convinced that Mr. Suchard has any idea what he's talking about, which doesn't leave me much room for admiring the power of his mind to bend spoons and such.
But I bet you're not surprised by my reaction.
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* Ellen Sterling, "The Power of the Mind: Lior Suchard Is A Living, Breathing & Entertaining Example", Huffington Post, 6 September 2009.
‡ Recall: LASER = Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation.
In: All, It's Only Rocket Science, Raised Eyebrows Dept.