• ByteJunk@lemmy.world
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      7 days ago

      A mirror doesn’t generate its own light either, but would you try shooting a weapons grade laser into one and pointing it at one of your eye sockets?

      • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldOPM
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        7 days ago

        I wouldn’t compare the brightness of a laser to a reflection of itself. That’s the issue I’m seeing.

        • ByteJunk@lemmy.world
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          6 days ago

          Why not? There’s a bunch of applications where that is a requirement.

          The Lunar Laser Ranging experiments are a fun one, I think. Scientists shoot lasers at mirrors placed in the moon and measure the trip time of light to calculate the distance of the moon to the millimetre.

          However:

          Out of a pulse of 3×10E17 photons aimed at the reflector, only about 1–5 are received back on Earth, even under good conditions.