A dastardly villain has tied an innocent victim to a train track. Stop him with your eye laser beams

You've always wanted to be able to shoot laser beams from your eyes (and really, who hasn't?). However, you don't want to just blow stuff up with your eye laser beams, You want to be able to stop trains and rescue people with them. Imagine: a dastardly villain has tied an innocent victim to a train track (cue ominous music). A 10 , 000 kg 10,000~\mbox{kg} locomotive is 100 m 100~\mbox{m} away from the victim, traveling at 20 m/s 20~\mbox{m/s} . Here you come to save the day!

However, you can only save the day if your eye laser beams have enough power. What minimum power output in Watts must your eye laser beams have if you are to be able to stop the locomotive before it runs over the innocent victim?

Details and assumptions

  • Assume the locomotive perfectly reflects the light from your laser beam eyes. You don't want to blow stuff up, you just want to stop it.
  • Your eye laser beams put out a constant intensity of light.


The answer is 3E+12.

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2 solutions

Josh Silverman Staff
Jan 3, 2014

The laser eyes shine some quantity of photons per unit time, N γ N_{\gamma} , with some energy per photon, E γ E_{\gamma} , so that the power, P eyes P_\textrm{eyes} is given by N γ E γ N_{\gamma}E_{\gamma} .

Each photon that hits the train delivers twice its original momentum to the train (since it reverses directions).

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The momentum of a single photon is given by E γ / c E_{\gamma}/c and so the rate of momentum change for the train (the force provided by the incident photons) is given by p ˙ train = 2 N γ E γ / c \displaystyle\dot{p}_\textrm{train} = 2N_{\gamma}E_{\gamma}/c .

For the train to come to a standstill before annihilating the victim, the incident photons must shed all the initial energy of the train.

The amount of work done by a force F F through a distance l l is given by

W = l 0 l f F d l = l 0 l f p ˙ train d l = 2 c ( l f l 0 ) N γ E γ \displaystyle W=\int\limits_{l_0}^{l_f} \vec{F} \cdot \vec{dl} = \int\limits_{l_0}^{l_f}\mbox{ }\dot{p}_\textrm{train}dl = \frac{2}{c}\left(l_f-l_0\right)N_{\gamma}E_{\gamma} which for the train must equal 1 2 M v 0 2 \frac12 M v_0^2 , yielding P eyes = N γ E γ = c M v 0 2 4 L \boxed{\displaystyle P_\textrm{eyes} = N_{\gamma}E_{\gamma} = \frac{cMv_0^2}{4L}}

Yeah, that's pretty much the way I did it. On my second try. First, I completely ignored the photons, and all that; all I wanted to find was the power output needed for stopping the train right on time.

I just said that the train must have a constant deceleration ("constant intensity of light"), so its motion is described by V 2 = V 0 2 + 2 a Δ x V^2=V_0^2+2a\Delta x From which we get that the acceleration provided by the photons is 2 m s 2 -2\frac{m}{s^2} . We know that F = m a F=ma , and that W = F Δ x W=F\Delta x , and finally that P = W / t P=W/t . Finding the force is easy: 20,000 Newtons. The work, 2,000,000 Newtons. And finally, to find the time, we just use another kinematics eq.: Δ x = V 0 t + 1 / 2 a t 2 \Delta x=V_0t+1/2at^2 , from which we get that t=10s. Finally, we get that P = 200 , 000 P=200,000 watts, a value more than 10 million times smaller than the correct one.

I input that answer, and it was marked incorrect, so I went in the direction of your method instead; I still don't understand, however, what's wrong with my original method. Could you help me out?

Nico Valdes - 7 years, 5 months ago

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I think the problem with that approach is that the photons don't lose energy in slowing the train. If the photons transferred their energy as a means of slowing the train, you could equate the energy lost by the train to the power of the laser beam. However, the photons just transfer momentum to the train.

Josh Silverman Staff - 7 years, 5 months ago

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Thank you, Josh. It was that one time I got a Mechanics question wrong, and I didn't really know what went amuck. I did exactly what Nico did. :(

Ahaan Rungta - 7 years, 5 months ago

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@Ahaan Rungta It is a pleasure to serve you my lord

Josh Silverman Staff - 7 years, 5 months ago

Yeah, thanks Josh! Very clever- you understood this question and the physics of it very well, I'm impressed.

Nico Valdes - 7 years, 5 months ago

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@Nico Valdes I cannot believe the magnanimity of your high praise!

Josh Silverman Staff - 7 years, 5 months ago

I believe the question is not realistic, as not all photons reach the locomotive, and even some photons have vertical momentum too, and the net force is given by change in horizontal momentum only, though if we are given it to solve, we can assume anything .

jatin yadav - 7 years, 5 months ago

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Physics questions are rarely realistic; nor should we expect them to be. What we're doing here, like when we ignore friction or air resistance, is working out the optimal, the ideal case, and then later we can get our hands dirty with the little details if we so wish.

Nico Valdes - 7 years, 5 months ago

Thank you

AAditya Barot - 7 years, 5 months ago

Nice solution, didn't think of it in this way, I did what Nico did

Mandar Sohoni - 7 years, 3 months ago
Avineil Jain
Feb 21, 2014

Force Due to a light beam is given by F = P c F =\frac {P}{c} where P is power of source and c is speed of light.

Since this train is perfectly reflecting, F = 2 P c F =\frac {2P}{c}

now, calculate force using kinematics and subs values to get the answer. P = 3,000,000,000,000 W !!

that value would instantly vaporises the train. as 160w laser can cut 1.5mm stainless steel...

Sony Lin - 7 years, 1 month ago

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