Differences between ordinary light and laser beams 

This is where regular lights (lamps, etc.) and lasers differ.

Lasers emit beams of light with high directivity, which means that the component light waves travel together in a straight line with almost no spreading apart. Ordinary light sources emit light waves that spread apart in all directions. The light waves in a laser beam are all the same color (a property known as monochromaticity). Ordinary light (such as the light from a fluorescent bulb) is generally a mixture of several colors that combine and appear white as a result. As the light waves in a laser beam travel, they oscillate with their peaks and troughs in perfect synchronization, a characteristic known as coherence. When two laser beams are superimposed on each other, the peaks and troughs of the light waves in each beam neatly reinforce each other to generate an interference pattern.