Laser altimeter

Okay kiddo, have you ever played with a flashlight? Do you know how it can light up things in the dark? Well, a laser altimeter is kind of like a flashlight, but instead of lighting up things, it measures distances.

Imagine you are standing in front of a wall and you want to know how far away it is. You can use a laser altimeter to send a beam of light towards the wall and wait for the light to bounce back to you. Then you can calculate how long it took for the light to come back and figure out how far away the wall is.

Scientists use laser altimeters to measure the heights of mountains or the depths of oceans. They send a laser beam towards the ground or water surface and wait for it to bounce back. By measuring how long it takes for the light to return, they can calculate the distance from the ground or water's surface to the laser.

So, that's what a laser altimeter is, a tool that sends out laser beams to measure distances. Pretty cool, huh?