The first starfield is Orion, the second is Ursa major. Very cool Edit: It's not obvious to everyone lol

My favorite thing about diffraction gratings is that the output is just the Fourier transform of the grating structure. So if you want an image of the earth, just take the 2D inverse Fourier transform and pattern it onto your screen using maskless lithography.

The Earth rotating is the best one! So cool!

This short deserves its own full length video.

The earth rotating would look perfect on display in an evil lair in a spy film

I built a laser and refraction grating set up to reproduce Louis de Broglie’s wave-particle duality experiment as a practical device that could be used in a classroom. Given that the standard kit cost in excess of £450 at the time, my £40 version got me published in an international physics magazine so that other colleges could make their own.

The rotating Earth reminds me of the Death Star schematic representation in the Rebel base in Star Wars. Would be rather cool to have that, as well.

We use the diffraction patterns of x-rays through single crystals of molecules to calculate the structure of the molecules making up the crystal lattice. It's crazy - you literally get a picture of your molecule back from your local friendly crystallographer.

And they try to claim that physics isn't just rebranded magic.

In the 90's and early 2000's you could find a common toy in corner-stores that was a key-chain laser with various screwable small lenses in front that shot out different shapes and images. Sometimes you would find more relatively complex images. The most complex I had was a fairly detailed lion-head. Of course, nothing as complex as what you are showing. Back then it was just line art. 😛

Canadian currency has a defraction grating as well for security reasons. Its in the clear small maple leaf in the top lefthand side of the bills

Years ago (like 18 years ago) I had won a red laser pointer (a really cheap one) at an arcade that came with different screw on lenses/filters and they did stuff like this! It made a grid pattern, or a smiley face, or a pair of spooky eyes, stuff like that, it had about 8 different things. Seeing the more advanced ones here look so much better, and I want a laser pointer that can do this stuff again XD

Nostalgia! There used to be those laser flashlights with diffraction filters to project cool designs. They were very popular among school kids. Although I don’t think they were meant for kids due to safety concerns.

This reminds me - I remember when holograms became commercially viable as I was growing up. In some news articles, there was talk about some types of holograms that were only viewable with laser or coherent light. This reminds me of that. Very cool stuff.

So you know how in the double slit experiment, the diffraction pattern is the Fourier transform of the input. I.e. the top hat function of a beam becomes a sinc function. Theoretically you should be able to do the reverse. Create a diffraction grating that can take light that's been diffracted into a sinc function and diffract it back into the top hat function.

It would be so cool to make a looping animation, print it onto a strip, curve that strip into a ring and then spin it in front of the laser

make it into a longer video plz!!

What used to be MWK Industries in California (great deals and rip-offs on LASER surplus) sold what was a CD form factor acrylic discs that would do animations depending on how you advanced the disc. I changed out the infrared laser diode in a CD player, made a custom stepper controller and adjusted the optics to collimate the beam. For what it was, I really enjoyed it. This was way before laser pointers could be bought in the pet section of most stores. My various lasers were the envy of my physics teacher. lol

Wow i want to see a short film made by projecting a Lazer

Canadian money has difraction grating built in. It projects the denomination on a wall as a security measure

I have this! I got this sample after someone demoed it on Reddit years ago. Even has an info card! They call it an Diffractive optical element

I had a switchable heads on my

We need more products with it, thats so cool!

Back in like the mid-late 90s and early 2000s You could buy cheap laser pointers in convenience stores that would have different tips on them that produced different images, it was fun lol.

I need that diffraction grating

Back in the 90's, cheap little laser keyrings were available from loads of places. They'd come with a bunch of endcaps that would turn the dot into a particular shape. They weren't as fancy as these, but they'd do things like heart shapes or smiley faces. I still have a set of them. They're not so easy to get hold of nowadays.

Could that be done on a disk with a polar plot instead of a linear surface to achieve a rotating loop??

This is something that would be great for parents to show to our kids. Especially once they start getting somewhat savvy in maths. I will start looking for a grating like that.

Check out the Canadian polymer bills. The ones with the semi-opaque white circle inside the maple leaf is a diffraction grating that shows the amount of the bill.

Woah! That's so awesome. I remember performing this diffraction experiment with a red diode laser in my Engineering Physics Laboratory! This is much cooler ✨

The grating is basically the Fourier transform of the image it produces.

When I lived in Austin, the Zilker tree lighting would have these diffraction grading glasses they would give away, paper and plastic like older 3D glasses. It would turn the small pin lights of the christmas lights into all sorts of things, from star lines to "Noel", to all sorts of other stuff.

His content has been my constant favourite, explaining day to day science ❤

New Canadian 'paper' money has a spot in the clear area where it shows bill value when you shine a laser through it.

Imagine a whole movie projected using one.

This is actually a complex prism. I've seen some simpler ones that essentially turn the laser dot into simple shapes. Caps that you can put on your laser pointer, and it creates nice patterns.

I need one!

This takes me back 30-50 years. Wow.

The video with the laser, ballon, and mirror fragment is my favorite, I replicated it at home myself, I would love to see more videos on visual displays of audio frequency content like that

the one of the earth rotating actually blew my mind. they all were cool, but that one really took the cake.

That would be a fun and educational thing to do at home with kids. Light is a fascinating subject and things about it can be learned at any age.

you can put a whole movie on that thing!

This is absolutely fantastic!

I want a video on how this works. NOW!!!

ok the constellation was cool then the rotating earth blew my mind.

Раньше была у меня лазерная указка с кучей насадок, там были разные изображения. Все это было через кусочек стекла. Спасибо вам за интересный контент:)

I didn't know that diffraction grating could turn a dot of laser light into a line of dots nor a grid of dots.

When I worked at Home Depot, they had these novelty glasses you could buy during the holiday season which when you put them on and look at Christmas lights, you would see an image in the light. Its kind of a reverse version of this

Holy fuck this is the coolest thing I’ve ever seen

Okay, where can I get one!

I like your vids very much, they have the no bs standard

You could use that to make a really cool old school Gameboys display. Monochromatic for life!

How do you get high quality diffraction gratings? Most I've tried are terrible with distortions or noise from I'm assuming bad quality materials or bad handling.

Never thought diffraction gratings would be toys someday!

I want that constellation as a light feature that is so cool

MIND BLOWN

I had a couple of lenticular rulers as a kid, one with the presidents, and another with the Stanley cup champions. Until now, their coolness had not been surpassed. To me, anyway!

Dont let flat earthers see that last one!

I had these when I was a kid. They would seel different tips for laser pointers and it would be like a dog, a bicycle etc. I used to love those.

They used to sell these at trade shows and stuff or as just little trinkets that you can buy that were laser pointers with a bunch of different tips that does stuff like that I absolutely loved it

I remember those cheap lasers you'd win at a carnival or something. They'd always come in a plastic case with fake red felt that had a bunch of different tips you could screw onto the laser to make different shapes. This is just next level

WOW. Just WOW.

There's so much I don't know, and this was one of them. Thank you, that's something really cool and I'm happy to know now.

I can see an invention evolving from this

These filters have come a long way since I was a kid lol! Back in the day you could buy a laser pointer with different head attachments. Heart, star, smiley face, and regular.

The company CDA is worldwide well known for microstructuring polymer surfaces, just as seen in the video. However, they also used to produce compact discs and later DVDs. So in case you grew up with this kind of technology it is quite likely you held a disc from CDA in your hands.

You got me interested when you showed a laser, a little bit confused with the diffusor, but amazed by the end result.

This kinda reminds me of those cheap glasses you can get around christmas time that makes all the lights shaped like ginger bread men and other stuff.

That’s insane!

SUPER COOL!!!!!

I remember laser pointers with like A LOT of different endings that made hundreds of imagines. It was fun to trade them in School 😊

That's insanely awesome

If you panned the camera to the movement of the earths rotation would make for some even more amazing viewing.

Canadian money has little tiny diffraction lenses that project images and the value of the bill. It’s very cool.

This is so awesome!

I used to have a laser pointer with little images as diffraction patterns. Fun stuff!

THAT'S SO COOL

Awesome!

That is absolutely crazy! Wish we could turn this tech into a hologram!

That's frickinh awesome!

18:00 "Try this." -MatPat

The Earth rotating gave me SOF vibes :D

thats amazing

You can't just post that without a link to a video explaining how it works!

Wow! That's really cool!

"The Micro Functional Solutions business unit was also established in 2005. For this purpose, known processes were modified that a new process for the production of complex microstructures made of plastic was created. The resulting lenses are used, for example in cell phones, VR/AR glasses or game consoles." CDA GmbH who make these have a channel on KZfaq too.

This is just amazing!!

Thats is so damn cool, can we get a long video on this topic, applied science of Fourier transform etc. Love your work!❤

Incredible!

That's pretty friggin cool

Oh damn, i expected it to just be stencil like and the images to be a couple stars and a long rectangle, I didn’t realise it had so much more “information” inside the shapes.

Woah, wicked.

Canadian bills have this. They display the denomination of a laser is shined through a particular place in the bill (a little transparent maple leaf)

Genuinely neat

What a time to be alive

That is so cool! Take all my money!!

thats craaazy! so cool

That is freaking awesome.

It’s very cool Steve, very cool

Yes... full video. Where to get these filters!! 😮