The Phaser and The Bum
- Thread starter MarsWeeps
- Start date
On a related note, what is that sound, really? We know it as the sound of a phaser on overload, but is the sound added in or does it really make that sound?
It seems like from The Conscience of the King and The Cage that they can actually hear it and it's not just added in like Bionic strength or spinning to change into your Wonder Woman costume.
Then what is the sound, a warning sound made by the phaser or the actual sound of energy being stored up? It probably is a warning sound, what sound would energy make, unless somehow all of the phasers molecules were vibrating at the right frequency to somehow generate the soundwave.
And what self destruct setting would be needed with an overload setting? Isn't the overload setting the self destruct by default? Would it need more than one way to self destruct? And with a seperate self destruct setting, what would the overload be for?
It seems like from The Conscience of the King and The Cage that they can actually hear it and it's not just added in like Bionic strength or spinning to change into your Wonder Woman costume.
Then what is the sound, a warning sound made by the phaser or the actual sound of energy being stored up? It probably is a warning sound, what sound would energy make, unless somehow all of the phasers molecules were vibrating at the right frequency to somehow generate the soundwave.
And what self destruct setting would be needed with an overload setting? Isn't the overload setting the self destruct by default? Would it need more than one way to self destruct? And with a seperate self destruct setting, what would the overload be for?
Many "no moving components" machines do make noise: various transformers are notorious for that. Perhaps our fictional explanation could be found in coils and fields?
I think many of the setting designations heard in Trek are in fact overlapping, meaning either the same thing or elements of the same thing. That is, there aren't just four or sixteen notches to a single control lever: there are several parameters to adjust, this in part contributing to the menagerie of setting designations we hear used.
ST6:TUC really gives a nice explanation: the effect, once inserted into the mass that is the victim, propagates until it hits a sufficiently high phase boundary. That is, it proceeds until it hits massively denser or massively less dense material. Clothing is close enough to the human body to be consumed by the effect, but air or walls are not. Similarly, an effect inserted into a steel kettle won't make the jump into mere water inside.
Not all phaser effects manage to reach the phase boundary, of course. If one fires at a vast wall of rock, the effect only spreads out so far until fizzling out; people using phasers as rock drills make use of that, adjusting their settings so that crawling-height or walking-height ciruclar tunnels are the result. Similarly, one may fire a weak effect into a human body so that it only consumes the internal organs but leaves the body more or less okay.
All we have to assume now is that phasers (not being based on having something explode inside like today's sidearms) are made of a relatively "soft" material that doesn't differ much from the human body or the human clothing. The barrel may be configured so that a phaser doesn't destroy itself with each and every shot, but if the effect propagates back along some other conduit such as the hand holding it, the barrel coating is of no help and the whole thing (or enough of it) is phased out of this realm.
We might, for the sake of convenience, also assume that when hitting a phase border, a potent effect will make disappear some material from a different phase, such as metal coins in the pocket but not the entire metal manhole cover beneath the shoes. The TOS make-disappear kill beams are deliberately defined as featuring just a tad of overkill, so that the death is maximally merciful and assured but collateral damage unlikely. The TNG beams are less humane when used in wars (where saving of power is a concern) or crimes (where mercy is undesirable).
Timo Saloniemi
I think many of the setting designations heard in Trek are in fact overlapping, meaning either the same thing or elements of the same thing. That is, there aren't just four or sixteen notches to a single control lever: there are several parameters to adjust, this in part contributing to the menagerie of setting designations we hear used.
And it doesn't stop at air, which is also connected.
ST6:TUC really gives a nice explanation: the effect, once inserted into the mass that is the victim, propagates until it hits a sufficiently high phase boundary. That is, it proceeds until it hits massively denser or massively less dense material. Clothing is close enough to the human body to be consumed by the effect, but air or walls are not. Similarly, an effect inserted into a steel kettle won't make the jump into mere water inside.
Not all phaser effects manage to reach the phase boundary, of course. If one fires at a vast wall of rock, the effect only spreads out so far until fizzling out; people using phasers as rock drills make use of that, adjusting their settings so that crawling-height or walking-height ciruclar tunnels are the result. Similarly, one may fire a weak effect into a human body so that it only consumes the internal organs but leaves the body more or less okay.
All we have to assume now is that phasers (not being based on having something explode inside like today's sidearms) are made of a relatively "soft" material that doesn't differ much from the human body or the human clothing. The barrel may be configured so that a phaser doesn't destroy itself with each and every shot, but if the effect propagates back along some other conduit such as the hand holding it, the barrel coating is of no help and the whole thing (or enough of it) is phased out of this realm.
We might, for the sake of convenience, also assume that when hitting a phase border, a potent effect will make disappear some material from a different phase, such as metal coins in the pocket but not the entire metal manhole cover beneath the shoes. The TOS make-disappear kill beams are deliberately defined as featuring just a tad of overkill, so that the death is maximally merciful and assured but collateral damage unlikely. The TNG beams are less humane when used in wars (where saving of power is a concern) or crimes (where mercy is undesirable).
Timo Saloniemi
If they're holding it.Yes, I think it's been established that phasers get vaporized by someone shooting themselves.
My thought is that there is a separate self destruct setting, with a separate distinct warning sound. Instead of exploding, the phaser self-disintegrates itself.
If the bum had simply dropped it, he would have been fine. Just a small burn mark on the pavement.
That's actually a VERY logical explanation. A self destruct setting to keep the weapon from falling into the wrong hands. If you happen to be holding it when it goes off, though...yikes.
Those are the breaks.
