Frickin' Lasers

Ever wonder what is the difference between light from a flashlight and light from a laser? Put simply, light from a laser is more organized than light from a flashlight.

More specifially, if we think of light as a wave, the waves of light from a laser are synched, while the waves of light from a flashlight are scattered (out of step, differing wavelengths). Here is a nice illustration.

Interestingly, increasing the accuracy with which light can be measured was the subject of the work awarded the Nobel Prize in 2005. link