Warp wrote:
> TC <do-not-reply@i-do get-enough-spam-already-2498.com> wrote:
>> Never 
>> mind that in a vacuum there is no sound to be heard and laser beams are 
>> invisible.
> 
>   Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation, at the energy
> levels usually used in terrestrial conditions, might be invisible. But
> energy weapons in scifi movies do not necessarily use either LASER nor
> the energy levels we are accustomed to. (The word "laser" has become more
> or less synonym of "light/energy ray", especially in scifi settings, but
> that doesn't mean that it's literally a LASER.)
> 

If it is a LASER, at a very high energy level, it would still be
invisible from the camera's perspective. There is very little to scatter
the beam, even if it was in the visible spectrum, so the only places
anyone in the movie would see the beam is at any point along the path it
travels, and possibly after it starts to vaporize the target.

As for sound, LASER beams do not go WOOOSH! or PEW! PEW! PEW!

I have thought, however, that it could be explained by having the
Unobtainium capacitors, that power a LASER/plasma/whatever weapon,
discharge with a sonic component. I mean, if the charging circuit for a
set of flash bulbs has a nice whine to it, maybe the futuristic ones
will just have a different charge rate/volt/pattern.

>   The energy beams used by space ship weapons in scifi movies may be though
> of using some form of energy still unknown to us, and the levels of energy
> involved are ostensibly staggering (after all, these energy beams have to
> penetrate energy shields and reinforced space ship hulls, so a regular
> earthly LASER won't cut). It's *plausible* that this form of energy beam,
> at the energy levels involved, might be visible, either all by itself or
> by "burning" whatever matter is in space (after all, space is seldom 100%
> total vacuum, and instead there are always trace amounts of hydrogen
> molecules from stellar wind, etc).

Plasma, ion or blaster guns, antimatter particle streams. All good
choices that may, at some energy level or condition may emit photons.
Waste of good impact energy, but sometimes it can not be helped.

I suppose, thinking about it more, that a LASER might scatter in a space
'dog-fight' situation. The vehicles involved would be maneuvering and,
barring gravity modification or some other reaction-less system, would
be leaving behind a trail of some particles. A LASER would scatter in
that, and may possibly impart enough energy to cause those particles to
glow.

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