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A short laser flash bounces off a surface, and the return delay gives range to within a few centimetres. The figure is taken from NASA, which is linked in full on this page. Every fact on Mondo Knows names its source rather than repeating an unsourced claim.

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Yes. It sits on the Technology shelf, one of 2,600 sourced facts grouped into space, animals, the human body, history, science and more. Category pages collect every fact in the same field.

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Mondo Knows Facts

Lidar measures distance by timing a light pulse

A short laser flash bounces off a surface, and the return delay gives range to within a few centimetres Because light travels about 30 centimetres per nanosecond, the timing circuit must resolve intervals of a few billionths of a second. Scanning the beam across a scene builds a cloud of points with depth, which is why lidar appears in surveying, archaeology and vehicle sensing. Early systems used spinning mirrors, while newer designs steer the beam with solid state arrays. It sits in Mondo's technology collection, one of 200 facts that each trace back to the reference below.

Where this comes from

NASA

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Tags: sensors, lidar, lasers

Lidar measures distance by timing a light pulse: the short answers

Where does this come from, and can I check it?: A short laser flash bounces off a surface, and the return delay gives range to within a few centimetres. The figure is taken from NASA, which is linked in full on this page. Every fact on Mondo Knows names its source rather than repeating an unsourced claim.
Is this really a technology fact?: Yes. It sits on the Technology shelf, one of 2,600 sourced facts grouped into space, animals, the human body, history, science and more. Category pages collect every fact in the same field.
What else can I read about it?: The links under the fact point to a quiz, game, puzzle or calculator on the same subject, and the shelf below shows related facts. The wording here is original, and quoted phrases are marked as quotations.