# Can I cut a mirror with a laser?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-cut-a-mirror-with-a-laser/658657>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [May 18, 2013, 4:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-cut-a-mirror-with-a-laser/658657 "2013-05-18T04:28:21Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\
**Post date:** [May 22, 2013, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-cut-a-mirror-with-a-laser/658657/21 "2013-05-22T16:57:58Z")

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The most detail he gave on them was in _World of Ptavs_, where the human scientists had already figured out how to produce a modest field (something like 10^3 or 10^4 to 1), but then found an alien wearing a much more advanced field which they estimated at more like 10^16. They presumably reverse-engineered the alien’s suit offscreen, and all stasis fields in stories chronologically after that were the more advanced ones.

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