Quote:
Originally posted by Lunchbox7
How can lasers heat things without being hot?
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Something doesn't need to be hot to heat something, because thermal energy can arise from another form of energy. For instance, if I drop something, the kinetic energy from the object is converted to heat -- but the object itself could have been at the same initial temperature as the room. A laser carries a lot of energy that can be converted into thermal energy, but temperature is not the right way to describe the nature of its energy.