Star Trek Phasers: Did you know they arent actually beam type weapons?

[RoyalWolfe]

I know I am going to be called a real nerd for posting this thread so get it over with now. yes, I do watch alot of Sci Fi, and yes, I do actually know a bit about science and space and all that.

OK anyways, lets gat to the topic subject. \We have all watched Movies and shows like Star Trek, Star Wars and so on. allot of things in these shows, are actually debated as weather they mite be plausible fictions that could be based in reality. there are also allot of technologies that are sometimes actually made in reality.

Star Trek Phasers are one of those recent such technologies in fact, and the way they really work isnt exatly as you mite expect them to. In fact the Star Trek phaser despite its apearance, isn't clasifiable as a beam type weapon. It is actually a wave type. confused?

Well lets explain how it actually works then. It uses a wave of superheated particles that are usually created by burning a sylica based sand. this particle, is then beamed in a focused WAVE of energy. so that is why it is actually a wave type, The beam you see in the show, (the real one is actually completely invisable to the naked eye.) is actually a wave of light, not a beam, as it appears to the naked eye.

 

[Detjen]

The Star Trek Phaser is actually a directed partical beam weapon. It makes use of made up subatomic particles called Nadions that when fired interact with a crystal known as the fushigi-no-umi (not sure if the crystal is made up). A process known as the Rapid Nadion effect occurs within the crystal and large amounts of energy from the strong nuclear force is released with the nadion particles creating the particle beam from the phaser. I am not actually sure if the phaser is a beam weapon or a particle beam weapon as inconsitencies has caused it to be called both an em beam and a partical beam in both show and various technical books.



The idea of creating superheated particles through burning a sylica based sand might be how scientists today are working towards a wave energy weapon of some sort but thats not how its done in trek and thefore is not a Star Trek phaser, the Star Trek phaser is far more hand wavey technobabble we have come to expect from the series and is still a beam weapon of some form.

 

[NeonSturm]

I think not energy emitting weapons will be the future, but weapons which exploit the weaknesses of an enemy.

Why does a Star-Trek ship only have one type of weapon? No fallback option, except torpedoes?



Personally, I think disruptor-type weapons will be more energy efficient. They break the structural integrity by resonances inside material, effectively turning the shield energy against the vessel, causing damage to vital components, using radiation and harmfull neutron blasts or many tiny leaks in the hull to deplete the atmosphere.

 

[jackofo]

nuff said\'

 

[PseudoGold]

According to that episode you just needed to shine concenrated light on some crystal and you get a beam out of that. Spock talks about it and uses said crystal to break Kirk and himself out of a prison cell.

Can\'t believe I remember that-haven\'t seen star trek in years.

 

[RoyalWolfe]

actually you are incorrect the physics you describe are fictional as it is theorized as gene rodenberry saw it when he wrote star trek as it turns out it actually cant work that way and the way I describe is how the real thing that the military is developing to make them actually work.

as it turns out also they do not even have a lethal setting either as the real thing dosn\'t actually burn. instead it uses a persiced wave to dissorient and blind the target.

 

[RoyalWolfe]

as it turnsd out what exists in star trek isnt real and the real thing dosnt work that way.

 

[RoyalWolfe]

also let me clarify something about gene rodenberry as I have actually met the real man. I was also an extra in star trek 2. I was the on fire and screaming guy in the torpedo room. so i have a little experience on how he wrote most of star trek.

Gene was in person much like a used car salesman. he could totally sell you on the sound idea that he was a confident and competant individual, even if he actually had not fucking clue as to what he was doing, or how the things he was selling you actually worked. that is why alot of what is in Star Trek seems so realistic but actually have nothing to do with how they really work.

 

[Planr]

Guess what: A Laser \"Beam\" isn\'t a beam either- it\'s a wave too. But people still call it a laser beam. Therefore it is appropriate for the terms \"Wave\" and \"Beam\" to be interchangeable.

 

[lazarus78]

Who says the military is basing it off startrek, or that startrek used real science in their weapon design?



Further, you said it yourself, the energy is \"beamed\" as a wave. Nowhere is it said that beams are waves and waves are beams. Waves are everywhere, and we beam them everywhere. Most notably, the radio. Light is also waves, which are beamed as well.

Beaming is just a term used to describe a particular method of transfer. What is bieng transferred is irrelevant. Beaming people, or beams of light, to beam something means to direct the transfer of something in a direct path.

 

[GaeasSon]

We are all a bunch of geeks, aren\'t we? Phasers are vaguely technoplausible magic. There\'s a reason they never discuss the technology any more deeply than is necessary to advance the plot. The sad truth is that WE geek over it way more than the show\'s makers ever did.

 

[BeefBacon]

Lasers are already in use in warfare. The US military is apparently trialing an anti-air laser weapon mounted on aircraft carriers. The idea is that they focus a laser on a single point on an enemy aircraft causing, say, a fuel tank to rupture and explode. The biggest problem right now is stablising the laser, since have a laser that is rocking around on the waves hit a single point on a plane that is several kilometers away is no easy task.

Also, in the Star Trek universe, Federation ships are science and exploration ships - not warships. Combat is usually a last resort, with diplomacy always being the first response to a possible threat. The Federation relies on the intuition of their crews over the potency of their weapons. Very few Federation ships have been built specifically for war.

 

[22SAS_Wimp]

This, from the updated and expanded edition of the Star Trek Encyclopedia - http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Star_Trek_Encyclopedia - p355
\"Phaser. Acronym for PHASed Energy Rectification, a directed-energy weapon used by the Federation Starfleet and others.\"

This, from the TNG Technical Manual - http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Star_Trek:_The_Next_Generation_Technical_Manual - p123
\"The lead defensive system maintained by Starfleet Command for sublight use... is the phaser, the common term for a complicated energy release process developed to replace pure EM devices such as the lase, and particle beam accelerators. Phaser is something of a hold-over acronym, PHASed Energy Rectification, refering to the original process by which stored or supplied energy entering the phaser system was converted to another form for release toward a target, without the need for an intermediate energy transformation. This remains essentially true in the current phaser effect.
\"Phaser energy is released through the application of the rapid nadion effect (RNE). Rapid nadions are short-lived subatomic particles possessing special properties related to high-speed interactions within atomic nuclei.\"

And this from Memory Alpha, which includes references to on screen evidence -
\"Phasers were the most common and standard directed energy weapon in the arsenal of Starfleet and several other powers. Most phasers were classified as particle weapons and fire nadion particle beams, (Star Trek: First Contact; TNG: \"The Mind\'s Eye\"; VOY: \"Time and Again\", \"Demon\")...\"


Every description of a Starfleet phaser describes it as an energy weapon.

 

[khaz]

Cool story bro, but how is this in any way related to starmade? Do you want phasers in game or just boredom induced randomness?

 

[Winterhome]

You do realize this is in the general subforum, not the suggestions/other subforums, right?