Homemade laser is powerful enough to explode ping pong ball

Don't try this at home. A college student just created a laser powerful enough to obliterate a ping pong ball.

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Laser enthusiast Anthony Drake posted this to his YouTube channel, styropyro, calling it a "homemade 40W laser shotgun." That's about 8,000 times stronger than a typical laser pointer.

"The output of this laser is complete insanity, and is made up of 8 parallel 5W laser beams totaling to 40W," Anthony wrote in the video description.

After explaining how the laser works, Anthony puts it into action, donning glasses to protect his eyes.

"'Dangerous' is an understatement for this thing. There's no, no good reason for anyone to own something this powerful, but because it wasn't illegal for me to build, I decided to build it anyway," he said, clarifying on his YouTube page that he can't legally sell his lasers.

He then proceeds to show off the laser's effects on balloons, paper and ping pong balls, leaving them all in smolders.

Anthony, known as the "DIY laser guy," is studying chemistry, physics and math at Southern Illinois University, according to his website. He's been posting laser and other science videos on YouTube since 2006, but he wrote in the video description that this was a first for him.

"This is definitely the craziest thing I have ever built," he said, "but I hope to beat this invention with something even crazier before too long."