Fuzzy lasers?

Believe it or not, I'm a bit of a tech nerd. I like gadgets. One of my lingering day dreams is one day to build a droid or android. (Of course, the paradox is that I'm also a bit of a Luddite, insisting, for example, the Internet is one of the greatest spiritual challenges for modern humans and preferring simple, older-fashioned gizmos to overly ornate, multi-purpose thingamajigs. I don't like all this technical jargon, but I use it.) Being a gadget man, if a laser pointer comes my way, I'll take it. And who wouldn't? Who doesn't like shining red dots onto far buildings at night? Or making your little dog chase a bobbing red light on the floor? Or turning off the lights and making your fingertips and nostrils glow red in the darkness? Or imaginging shooting laser Morse code to aliens? These are the highest joys of any bored and precocious man (or, uh, so I hear...).

At any rate, a laser pointer did fall into my clutches a few weeks ago and I have had red fingertips ever since. I've also had more time to observe the little red light beam dangling from my key ring. Which made me wonder, and then blog.

INSCITIA:

What makes laser light look the way it does? I mean, when I focus on it, the light seems to shimmer and vibrate, like I can actually see clumps of photons swirling. Why does it look like red "TV snow"? All around the center of the laser beam, I note a sort of "photo fuzz", like a small patch of red "light fog" -- why?

COGITATIO:

I did a little reading about lasers today (the More How Stuff Works book) and suspect the visual "fuzziness" of laser light has to do with the "coherent" nature of laser light. Laser light is coherent, as far as I understand it, in that its photons have very similar, very close wavelengths. Mirrors within lasers help laser quanta converge, unlike incandescent light, which spreads its photons into many directions. As such, laser light's coherent quanta would appear clumpier to the naked eye. Unlike the wave fluctuations of incandescent photons, which escape our notice, coherent laser quanta tumble together in an apparent way. I think it must have to do with wavelength interference, but I'm not sure how.

It's a very wobbly lay-cogitatio, but hey, that's why I have this blog! Have at ye!

RESPONSUM: