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Re: acronym LASER



I don't buy the story either, on the other hand the maser could have
originally been "strong microwave amplification..." Then the acronym
would have been smoser :-)

its summer

joe

On Tue, 15 Jul 2003, Larry Smith wrote:

Can anyone verify or refute the following story? I would think the MASER
would be a refutation.


At 1:08 PM -0400 7/14/03, Wordsmith wrote:

--------------------------------

From: J. Ramanand (ramanand_j@persistent.co.in)
Subject: On acronyms

An interesting (and perhaps apocryphal too) story about the coining of
"LASER" (for "Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation")
is that the initial description of this physical concept was to be "Light
Oscillation by Stimulated Emission of Radiation".

Why the "oscillation" was replaced by "amplification" is amply clear from
the two possible acronyms!

--------------------------------


Thanks,
Larry


Joseph J. Bellina, Jr. 574-284-4662
Associate Professor of Physics
Saint Mary's College
Notre Dame, IN 46556