Understanding the atom

Lasers

The transistor burst upon the electronic scene in the 1950s. Almost overnight the size of new models of radios, television sets, and a host of other electronic devices shrank like deflating balloons. Suddenly the hard-of-hearing could carry their sound amplifiers in their ears. Teenagers could listen to favorite music wherever they went. Everywhere we turned the transistor was making its mark. There was even a proposal before Congress to require that every home have a transistor radio in case of emergency. The next development to fire the imagination of scientists and engineers was the laseran instrument that produces an enormously intense pencil-thin beam of light. Most of us have heard so much about this invention it seems hard to believe that the first one was built only a few years ago. We were told that the laser was going to have an even greater effect on our lives than the transistor. It was going to replace everything from dentists drills to electric wires. The whole world, it seemed, eventually would be nothing but a gigantic collection of lasers that would do everything anyone wanted. Roads would be blazed through jungles at one sweep; our country would be safe once and for all from intercontinental ballistic missiles; cancer would be licked; computers would be small enough to carry in a purse; and so on and on. Yet for the first couple of years the laser seemed able to do nothing but blaze holes in razor blades for TV commercials. Somehow the device never seemed to emerge from the laboratory, prompting one cynic to call it an invention in search of an application. ......Buy Now (To Read More)

Product details

Ebook Number: 65512
Author: Hellman, Hal
Release Date: Jun 4, 2021
Format: eBook
Language: English