Yeah! Why keep shooting bursts? Just vapourize the bulkhead your opponent is hiding behind, & him WITH it!!!
Hand phasers: the evolution of the "beam" and it's effects.
- Thread starter Chrisisall
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I just thought of a reason why continuous beam fire could fall out of practice. Well, two reasons.
The first is overpenetration. That's a problem with real-life bullets; they can pass through your target and hit innocent bystanders behind, or pass through a wall and hit someone you didn't know was there. A phaser on the higher settings poses the same danger; as material is vaporized/disintegrated, anything behind it is in jeopardy.
The other is the general unsteadiness of the human hand. Try pointing a laser pointer across a large room and keep it steady. You'll find you're involuntarily moving the beam over a surprisingly large area unless you work very hard to be still, which isn't going to happen in combat. The further out the beam travels, the larger arc is created by the beam.
I just thought of a third - if someone trips (or dies) and falls on the fire button... yikes. Might take out everything in a half kilometer of the beam direction before someone's able to roll the body off the button. Bad idea for the same reason light sabers turn off automagically when dropped
The first is overpenetration. That's a problem with real-life bullets; they can pass through your target and hit innocent bystanders behind, or pass through a wall and hit someone you didn't know was there. A phaser on the higher settings poses the same danger; as material is vaporized/disintegrated, anything behind it is in jeopardy.
The other is the general unsteadiness of the human hand. Try pointing a laser pointer across a large room and keep it steady. You'll find you're involuntarily moving the beam over a surprisingly large area unless you work very hard to be still, which isn't going to happen in combat. The further out the beam travels, the larger arc is created by the beam.
I just thought of a third - if someone trips (or dies) and falls on the fire button... yikes. Might take out everything in a half kilometer of the beam direction before someone's able to roll the body off the button. Bad idea for the same reason light sabers turn off automagically when dropped
Then again, it also allows someone well-trained with a steady hand to "garden hose" the enemy, and adjust his aim perfectly by simply holding down the trigger and adjusting his angle accordingly.I just thought of a reason why continuous beam fire could fall out of practice. Well, two reasons.
The first is overpenetration. That's a problem with real-life bullets; they can pass through your target and hit innocent bystanders behind, or pass through a wall and hit someone you didn't know was there. A phaser on the higher settings poses the same danger; as material is vaporized/disintegrated, anything behind it is in jeopardy.
The other is the general unsteadiness of the human hand. Try pointing a laser pointer across a large room and keep it steady. You'll find you're involuntarily moving the beam over a surprisingly large area unless you work very hard to be still, which isn't going to happen in combat. The further out the beam travels, the larger arc is created by the beam.
I just thought of a third - if someone trips (or dies) and falls on the fire button... yikes. Might take out everything in a half kilometer of the beam direction before someone's able to roll the body off the button. Bad idea for the same reason light sabers turn off automagically when dropped
I think they'd have to use the steadycam attachment
LOL, that's built-in, haven't you WATCHED TOS?I think they'd have to use the steadycam attachment
So... they evolved beyond that...?
Probably just decided it's more efficient to kill someone with a shot than to vaporize them. They're dead either way and you save power. Actually, aside from the Dominion War, when did starfleet officers use phasers to kill people? They generally prefer to stun them.
the Wounded was just on SyFy, the Chief was telling a Cardasian about the emotional damage done to himself after killing and disintergrating the enemy. It begs the question for soldiers today is it worse to see a dead body or no evidence that the dead ever existed?
Ron Tracy left partially disintegrated Yang bodies in the field- it did little to soften him to the idea of mercy.
War is killing. A head left or a shadow, the job gets done. There is no "better or worse" IMO. Disconnect is the way a soldier does his job.
Sadly.
And my Dad served, in case you want to say I don't know what I'm saying.
I've seen enough dead bodies and some were damn near vaporized. Either way using a gun or phaser you intend to kill. It dosen't matter how it does the job you still know it did it and you caused that action.
I seem to remember a line from First Contact where Picard was telling Lily that she had the phaser set to maximum and at that setting it would have vaporized him had she fired.
At first, the NuPhasers bothered me. But, just about everything that was different bothered me in NuTrek. After the 2nd and 3rd viewing, i just LOVE them! Only problem i see with them is that they are just a teeny tiny bit slower in discharging the 'power'. With the old style, you pushed the button and the beam came out. Now, that doohickey has to turn taking up what could be precious moments during a fight. Or did i get that wrong?
I thought it had something to do with differentiating between kill and stun, but I could be totally off on that--we might not even be talking about the same thing. Where the aperture turned blue, right?
^ Myasishchev, first, i have to confess that i am technologically challenged. So, i think you are right, we may not be talking about the same thing. What i was referring to was how something on the phaser turned 180 degrees right before actually firing. i just tried to find a clip of that on the internet but couldnt find one....ACK!
I'm almost certain that it is indeed because of the difference between kill and stun, but that's honestly not something I've thought about a whole lot.
Damn it, now, it's going to be stuck in my head all day.
Heh. Funnily, I bet blue is stun, and red is kill, even though any given substance peaking in blue is going to be a lot more energetic than any given substance peaking in red.
LOL! My head too. I've been searching the web for a clip of it and havent found one yet. It very well could be the difference between kill and stun. While watching the movie i assumed it was just 'powering up'.
Damn. I hate the fact that it is no longer playing anywhere here and i cant re-examine all this stuff thats driving me crazy!!!
I've always had a couple problems with the notion of disintegration form a science perspective:
1) It take a lot of energy to vaporize a human sized target, so it seems inefficient. As others have said, why not just blow a hole in people?
2) If the target is vaporized by raising it's temperature dramatically, anything around the target would be par broiled. If it actually removes the atomic bonds holding them together, anything around the target will be bathed in radiation. Either way, it's pretty nasty collateral damage. Which of course we never see.
3) The density thing. How does the disintegration effect taper off? Does it obliterate a chunk of the floor where the victim's feet were? How about the air around him/her/it? What about shooting at things in water?
I know, I know, nadions, handwavy. It's not hard sf. But I'd be happier if they just had cutting beams or piercing/burning bolts. Oh, and stun, of course, which I guess is supposed to be just enough nadions to mess up your nervous system.
1) It take a lot of energy to vaporize a human sized target, so it seems inefficient. As others have said, why not just blow a hole in people?
2) If the target is vaporized by raising it's temperature dramatically, anything around the target would be par broiled. If it actually removes the atomic bonds holding them together, anything around the target will be bathed in radiation. Either way, it's pretty nasty collateral damage. Which of course we never see.
3) The density thing. How does the disintegration effect taper off? Does it obliterate a chunk of the floor where the victim's feet were? How about the air around him/her/it? What about shooting at things in water?
I know, I know, nadions, handwavy. It's not hard sf. But I'd be happier if they just had cutting beams or piercing/burning bolts. Oh, and stun, of course, which I guess is supposed to be just enough nadions to mess up your nervous system.
Not the way it works.
Ummm... no to that as well. Phasers disintegrate matter in the same way a tranporter beam does- selectively. Where the beam stops is what gets saturated, & only molocules of similar density in contact to the saturated object can absorb the "radiation," as you so quaintly put it.
Water is problematic since it has a similar density to solid matter. Phaser fire will liberate the hydrogen & oxygen molocules within a .05m range of the target immersed or surrounded by it, tapering off at approximately .005X10 to the hundreth power squared per 1000mmm thereafter.
Since no phaser has ever existed, nor has one ever been tested by being fired at water, I'm curious how you know this.
Which raises the spectre of chronic nerve damage. How many times does the ordinary Starfleet officer get stunned?
I can treknobabble with the best of 'em.Since no phaser has ever existed, nor has one ever been tested by being fired at water, I'm curious how you know this.
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