• Question: how fast do lazers go in mph please

    Asked by mackers to MarkF, Mark, Michael, Panos, Sarah on 21 Jun 2010 in Categories: .
    • Photo: Mark Fogg

      Mark Fogg answered on 21 Jun 2010:

      I’m not a physicist, but I always assumed at the speed of light (186,282 miles/s =670,615,200 mph).
      I have read of an experiment where one was recorded at 300x the speed of light, I really don’t understand the physics of that, so I’d find a physics teacher or a physicist to explain it better.

    • Photo: Mark Travis

      Mark Travis answered on 21 Jun 2010:

      Depends on the laser I guess- really sorry, you best ask a physicist about this, as I haven’t worked on stuff like this for years!

    • Photo: Sarah Burl

      Sarah Burl answered on 21 Jun 2010:

      depends on the lazer!

    • Photo: Panos Soultanas

      Panos Soultanas answered on 21 Jun 2010:

      Hello,

      lasers would travel at the speed of light which is ~300,000 Km/sec i.e. 181,411 miles/sec. Perhaps you can now convert it to miles per hour yoursefl and you will see that it is a big number…!!!

    • Photo: Michael Loughlin

      Michael Loughlin answered on 21 Jun 2010:

      http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/news/2810

      well that article reckons that a laser pules can be 300 x the speed of light…which is there for a total of
      2.01x 10 to the power 11 mph or 201184988600 mph

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