But that does make the phaser's `heat' and `stun' settings a bit mysterious. (I suppose heat is the less mysterious, really; if I squint I can kind of make myself believe in scrambling molecules as a path toward heating them.)
How do phasers differ from lasers?
- Thread starter KhanSolo
- Start date
But that does make the phaser's `heat' and `stun' settings a bit mysterious. (I suppose heat is the less mysterious, really; if I squint I can kind of make myself believe in scrambling molecules as a path toward heating them.)
Hmm... if phasers were based on the transporter principle, maybe the "stun" setting would beam oxygen molecules out of the bloodstream. Although that could cause brain and organ damage if one were stunned repeatedly.
There are two examples of phaser-type weapons actually acting very much like transporters: in VOY "Macrocosm", they with minor modifications deliver nanomachinery to the victim, and in DS9 "Siege of AR-558", they either deliver poisons or then generate those in the victim.
It could be argued that this is the simplest, bluntest way to use a phaser beam as a weapon: it delivers something that messes up the victim when popping back to the un-phased realm within him or her. With stun setting, it could be an agent that overloads the victim's key systems one way or another, but has little effect on the rest of the body. No need for accuracy, no need to spot blood vessels let alone specific molecules or molecule types within. Just impregnate the victim with a potent knockout drug, enough of which gets where it needs to while the rest doesn't create permanent damage and harmlessly dissolves soon enough. "Kill" could be upping the dosage, and would have little or nothing to do with "disintegrate". And that, too, would match the onscreen evidence of repeated stunning being fatal (yet apparently if and only if performed within a short span of time).
Alternately, the phaser beam could transport an electric charge to the victim, essentially acting as a wireless taser.
Timo Saloniemi
It could be argued that this is the simplest, bluntest way to use a phaser beam as a weapon: it delivers something that messes up the victim when popping back to the un-phased realm within him or her. With stun setting, it could be an agent that overloads the victim's key systems one way or another, but has little effect on the rest of the body. No need for accuracy, no need to spot blood vessels let alone specific molecules or molecule types within. Just impregnate the victim with a potent knockout drug, enough of which gets where it needs to while the rest doesn't create permanent damage and harmlessly dissolves soon enough. "Kill" could be upping the dosage, and would have little or nothing to do with "disintegrate". And that, too, would match the onscreen evidence of repeated stunning being fatal (yet apparently if and only if performed within a short span of time).
Alternately, the phaser beam could transport an electric charge to the victim, essentially acting as a wireless taser.
Timo Saloniemi
Also, in "Encounter At Farpoint," the main phasers were rigged "to deliver an energy beam" to the sick space jellyfish, for it to use for power to heal itself.
Yup, it's not "Macrocosm" but "Prey".
Janeway doesn't appear the slightest bit surprised that Seven can make phasers fire nanoprobes. But it's not Seven's amazing skills that cause Janeway's confidence, because the very next thing the Captain needs to ask whether Seven can achieve something else. Ergo, the Captain is instead confident that her phaser rifles can fire nanoprobes when needed.
Timo Saloniemi
Janeway doesn't appear the slightest bit surprised that Seven can make phasers fire nanoprobes. But it's not Seven's amazing skills that cause Janeway's confidence, because the very next thing the Captain needs to ask whether Seven can achieve something else. Ergo, the Captain is instead confident that her phaser rifles can fire nanoprobes when needed.
Timo Saloniemi
Still, the idea of a "laser bolt" features routinely in laser textbooks. If light travels approximately 30cm per nanosecond, a one nanosecond pulse would produce a "bolt" or bullet about 30cm long.
Physicist Ralph Sansbury conducted an experiment using laser "bolts." Laser pulses fired at a detector passed through a Pockel cell, a high speed gate that can be "opened" or "closed" to allow the laser to reach the detector. The results were startling.
If the gate remained closed until just before the pulse arrived, the detector saw nothing. If the gate remained open until just before the pulse arrived, the detector saw the pulse...
To me, this suggests that the energy from the laser travels much faster than light, and that what we know as "the speed of light" is really a "contrail" or delayed reaction from matter. This resolves the whole wave-particle duality problem—and potentially impacts all of physics.
To the best of my knowledge, no one has repeated Sansbury's experiment. (Although any college physics lab should have the hardware to do it.) Was there a flaw in the experiment somewhere, or did Sansbury stumble onto something new?
Most of the books refer to the production of "Nadions" being the primary part of the phaser beam, while PHASed Energy Retification from the acronym...means very little but apparently describes what the process is...somehow.
So they seem to be a very focused, phased, filtered beam of some particle called nadions.
So they seem to be a very focused, phased, filtered beam of some particle called nadions.
A casual search on Google Scholar doesn't turn up anything much about Sansbury, or the Classical Physics Institute that he's apparently associated with. Casting the nets wider I still don't find much about him or his work, and just a couple mentions of the Classical Physics Institute for antigravity work.
So, fall back on this: if someone reports finding a way to travel faster than light --- or to send information faster than light --- then that report is wrong. (Also if someone reports finding a way to modify gravity. Also, if someone reports having energy-generating fusion power, that's also mistaken.) The person may be mistaken, or may be fooling himself, or may be trying to fool someone else, but, no, something did not go faster than light.
Stuff like The Die is Cast can also be evidence for material being phased away...somewhere. That's with the bombardment of the Founder's homeworld.
Whilst there's some shockwaves and thermal effects, what's shown on the viewscreen is different to what we'd assume would happen when so much material is destroyed (we'd assume massive clouds and fireballs extending out into space).
It also allows for such large scale destruction capable of being inflicted by so few starships -- instead of doing it the traditional way of pure energy transfer, it does something different that we don't know about, which still doesn't break suspension of disbelief as we can assume they're far more advanced than we are.
Whilst there's some shockwaves and thermal effects, what's shown on the viewscreen is different to what we'd assume would happen when so much material is destroyed (we'd assume massive clouds and fireballs extending out into space).
It also allows for such large scale destruction capable of being inflicted by so few starships -- instead of doing it the traditional way of pure energy transfer, it does something different that we don't know about, which still doesn't break suspension of disbelief as we can assume they're far more advanced than we are.
Similar threads
