What power laser do I need to cut a watermelon in half?

[rubberduck]

And can I get one commercially or on the grey market? Or is this sort of thing heavily restricted?

 

[=XDC=FluphyBunny]

A knife. You are thinking of a knife.

 

[FurryLemon]

V – E + F = 2

Use a knife.

 

[Mynight]

Something capable of killing...hmm probably not on the legal market.

Or are we talking a really really slow cut?

 

[Rroff]

Generally the laws for lasers are like knives (the ones that aren't outright illegal to even own) - there isn't a restriction at such but if you can't provide a valid reason for owning such should you ever have to to the law you could end up in jail (obviously worst case) i.e. if you were walking around the streets with say a 20watt laser and stopped by the police

To clean cut something like a watermelon I think you are talking about high quality ~8 watt laser and it could still take some time and most places won't sell that kind of power direct to consumers.

 

[Narj]

Have you tried a lightsaber?

 

[tom_e]

11

elephants

of power.

 

[Energize]

Something capable of killing...hmm probably not on the legal market.

Or are we talking a really really slow cut?

High power lasers are legal, virtually no restrictions. In reality they are not capable of killing someone in a practical way.

I've never tried cutting a watermelon up, but organic material like that tends to absorb the beam energy quite a lot you so might need a CO2 laser.

 

[robfosters]

Most important question not been asked yet.

Why?

 

[Ranger07]

There's a lot of water in a melon, a laser would just cook the thing. Just use a knife.

 

[dcsarge]

I'm not sure about lasers but do not try using a phased plasma rifle in the 40 watt range. Messy, very messy.

 

[Six6siX]

And can I get one commercially or on the grey market? Or is this sort of thing heavily restricted?

You are now on a special list along with the people who like to use more than four fingers. Good luck getting a job at a watermelon factory anytime soon you vandal.

 

[Clav]

Pretty sure it's something in the 40 watt range.

 

[PinkPig]

You don't need a power laser to cut a watermelon in half.

 

[wildman]

in Soviet UK Watermelon cut you...........

 

[Avenged7Fold]

You don't need a power laser to cut a watermelon in half.

\thread

*Awaits to see a MM thread on buying a 'Power Laser'*

 

[JCBeastie]

Oh man could you pick a worse target; you're not gonna cut a watermelon with a laser, it's big, round and wet. You could probably scorch your way through eventually though.

Lasers don't really cut things like in movies, a laser cutting machine can only manage fairly thin materials. Thick plates of steel or w/e are usually water cut.

It's all down to physics really, your laser is essentially just focussing heat onto a very fine point. Anything that's going to resist or absorb that energy isn't going to be affected much.

Laser weaponry theoretically functions by causing heat stresses; superheating a point on the target to the point where the material expands, explodes or combusts. Blowing up a watermelon with a laser is doable I guess. The US Navy are operating a small laser weapon with a maximum of 30kW; that's a bit more than your average pointer.

 

[Kutter]

We can cut 1/2 inch thick mild steel with one of the lasers. You'll be suprised how good and how fast you can cut using fiber lasers.

Just have a look at the trumpf web site for all the lasery goodness.

 

[Avenged7Fold]

Elastic band it!

 

[tuftyfella]

4.21 gigawatts