I am looking at a purple laser pointer to buy and it says it is 5mW. what does that mean?
6 Answers
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this describes the aperture power of the laser beam. (amount of energy at the output opening of the laser.)
the 5 mW means 5 milliwatts. 5 milliwatts is five one thousandths of one watt.
this is the legal maximum output power that can be sold without registering the device with the national radiological safety commission.
my 20 mW green laser had to be registered due to it’s higher output power level.
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What Does Laser Mean
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A 5mW green laser is just a very low power laser gadget. It is mostly used in presentation, laser projection etc. If you need to burn things, a laser among 120mW-200mW would be better. But a pair of laser goggles is a must if you are holding such a high power laser in hands.
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5 milliwatts (10^-3).
It means that it won’t do anything but put up a dot and injure your retina if you stare at it for a few seconds.
I’m not a laser expert, but I’m not sure that you can even pump a purple laser with only 5 mW. You don’t even begin to give yourself a mild skin burn until about 150mW, and then it’s still one of those intentional things. You won’t just accidentally turn during a meeting and scorch your boss’s forehead.
150 mW is used to score the surface of DVDs and write data to them.
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5 Milliwatts
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Means very small output power, effective range is about 20 feet,safer to look at it without causing blindness.