• Question: Can lasers be used to cook food?

    Asked by michaelplease to Mike, Pip, Tianfu, Tim, Tom on 27 Jun 2012.
    • Photo: Tom Lister

      Tom Lister answered on 27 Jun 2012:

      Lasers don’t normally output a whole lot of energy, they are just able to focus the energy they have to a small spot. Although you could use a huge laser to cook food, it wouldn’t be a very efficient way of doing it.

    • Photo: Tim Stephens

      Tim Stephens answered on 27 Jun 2012:

      I am sure that they can. There are some very powerful lasers around that can definitely produce enough energy to cook food. It’s a very inefficient way to do it though, because lasers only convert a small fraction of the energy that you put in into light, and light isn’t very good at heating things up. The rest of the energy is thrown away as heat (which is ironic because that’s much better for cooking food).

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