Lasers, Ray Guns, and Light Cannons: Projects from the Wizard's Workbench [Hardcover]

Gordon McComb (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1997

This volume presents laser projects, all of which have been tested and debugged. Projects are included covering experimentation with visible light lasers using both semiconductor laser diodes and small helium-neon laser tubes.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

If you've ever been fascinated by lasers and wished you could build your own, this is the book for you. Gordon McComb explains how to buy low-power laser tubes on a small budget and use them for a variety of experiments, including long-distance communications links, laser-light shows, and even eavesdropping devices that can detect the vibrations the speaking induces in a windowpane far away. Though the book explains some of the physics and optics that make lasers work the way they do, it focuses primarily on practical applications for the hobbyist. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From the Back Cover

Explore the Future in Your Own Home Lab! Yes, you can-build a laser ray gun, put on a professional-level laser light show, create holograms, and perform dozens of other fascinating and fun experiments with the simple instructions in this magic-packed book. Renowned electronics writer Gordon McComb shows you how to build more than 88 exciting projects with inexpensive, easily obtained components and step-by-step illustration-laden instructions. In addition to ray guns, light shows, and holograms, he gives hyou clear, complete, and tested plans for constructing projects that: Detect intruders around a perimeter; Precisely measure the speed of light; Use lasers to study hydrodynamics; confirm earthquake potential; Modulate sound with light; Perform laser "snooping"; Explore fiberoptics; perform simple scanning; Throw a switch with light; Transmit data with lasers; Measure objects' speed with high accuracy; Carry your voice over a beam of light; And much more! Laced with fascinating scientific history, this book of field-tested projects is organized to facilitate your own creative construction! Module organization makes it easy to invent and construct new projects galore. Full appendices give you parts sources, suggested reading, and a glossary.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 413 pages
• Publisher: Mcgraw-Hill; 2nd edition (April 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 007045034X
• ISBN-13: 978-0070450349
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 7.5 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,272,129 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Gordon McComb has written more than 60 books and thousands of magazine articles--more than a million copies of his books are in print, in more than a dozen languages. He's has been called "The father of hobby robotics" by MAKE Magazine.

For 13 years, Gordon wrote a weekly syndicated newspaper column on computers, which reached several million readers worldwide. He's still a regular contributor to SERVO Magazine, and most recently completed seven years as writer of their popular Robotics Resources column.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars much better than the title or cover, October 25, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Lasers, Ray Guns and Light Cannons (Paperback)

I've worked in optics and interferometry and was absolutely delighted with this book.
Lots of tricks for hardware-store improvisation!

If you're not a tinkerer, this is not the book for you. There's little technical depth and no really good experiments or instrument design in it. (good experiments for this kind of book have either enormous educational value or reproduce poorly-understood phenomena).

If you know what you're doing though, this is where to look for tips on building your own optical bench, etc. All the student tricks I'd picked up along the way and then some. I've recommended it to a couple of past colleagues, too.

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An update of a classic, February 19, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Lasers, Ray Guns and Light Cannons (Paperback)

This book is actually an update to The Laser Cookbook, also written by G. McComb, and which is apparently still in print. That book has gotten very high marks here on Amazon; Lasers, Ray Guns, and Light Cannons contains everything in Laser Cookbook, plus new information on laser diodes, and several additional projects.

Apparently, some folks get upset when a book, like this one, tries to be camp with a playful title and comic-book art. It's what's inside that matters, and there is lots of good information here, from a writer who clearly knows how to explain technical details. For my money, this book is a terrific introduction to the world of hobby lasers.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not for Dr Evil, July 14, 2008

By 

C. Stalmer "Fantasy Reader" (Lawton, OK) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Lasers, Ray Guns and Light Cannons (Paperback)

I purchased this book thinking that I would be able to create something spectacular. I was sadly mistaken and it was not what I had hoped it to be. This book will not tell you how to build that giant laser of death that you have always wanted for your backyard. That being said the book was still useful in that I learned about other projects that I did not think of on my own. If you have knowledge of electronics and computers and would like to show demonstration of the varied things Lasers can be used for then this book could be for you