The Physics of Starship Battles: Lasers and Kinetic Energy

Here is an explanation of the perennial science fiction weapon. LASERS. Every show uses them but do any of them really know why? Here I explain the formula behind their power, and using video clips from many recognizable science fiction sources (and other surprises), I segway into another science fiction weapon based on the formula for Kinetic Energy. This weapon isnt what sci-fi says, but it is exactly what it means.

Despite being my longest movie (10 mins on the nose, thanks for being patient) this one was almost one of my fastest. The plot and general formula for this just flashed into my head with a pang, and I spent a month writing it before I had the spare time to film it, which took me under a month. The whole thing was already in rough cut form in under 2 weeks, which goes to show how valuable pre-preparation is.

In addition to Lasers and Kinetic Energy, my original idea was to mention Nuclear Weapons far more extensively, using each weapon in the context of what TV tells us to expect vs what the disappointing reality will be. That idea is expressed in the laser section, but then dropped in favor of Kinetic Energy's history lesson, which I found more entertaining. I didnt plan on using Lord of the Rings footage when I started, but when in the middle of hard-boiled movie-making, the movie gives you its ideas and you had better follow. Choosing video clips is always half the fun. Interesting how the one clip from ALIENS which made me upload the movie in the first place was the one that I didnt use. And the one clip from ALIENS which I'd almost never heard of before was the one that saved my ending. I have the expanded edition DVD, with about 30 minutes of footage never seen in theaters. 1 min of that ended up here by accident, as I was totally stumped on how to end this thing until I ran across one expanded speech by Hudson which I had seen only once before in my life. If I didnt have the expanded DVD I dont know what the ending would have turned into. So much of this is plain random creation of the moment.

Movies are easy. Just the BEGINNING and ENDING is hard. The ending you see here was my THIRD attempt to get something I liked. First it ended with Babylon 5, then Space: Above and Beyond, then Buck Rogers, and on and on. Its the hardest thing in the world to wrap everything up in a concise way when you dont even know what to say. George Lucas once said that screenwriting was like watching a movie with the sound going in and out with a broken projector, and I understand completely. All your inspiration says is what it DOESNT like, rarely if ever telling you what you should do instead.

Due to its predicted length, which I always knew was going to be pushing it, I almost cut this one into a two-parter, where I would have had a quaint "To Be Continued" tacked on to the first one. I wanted that mainly to see if people watch short movies more often than long ones, but in the end it wasnt necessary, and one fluid narrative is best. Far more important was making sure that Bruce Boxlietner got screentime in two separate shows, one of which driving a lightcycle.
As I said, inspiration makes its own rules. ;)

So, after putting a half dozen clips from ALIENS in here, what was the one that was my original idea yet didnt use?

"LT, what do those pulse rifles fire?"
"10mm explosive tip caseless. Standard light-armor piercing round. Why?"

As with so much else, it looked good on paper. ;)

Category:

Education

Tags:

• Physics
• starship
• battlestar
• buck
• rogers
• aliens
• star
• trek
• DS9
• alien
• weapon
• galactica
• education
• space
• above
• beyond
• wavelength
• nuclear

[0israphel0]

oh and also as you said the MOST POWERFUL lasers would be unseable BUT who says we HAVE to use the MOST POWERFUL ones we could just use purple ones huh how about that im using what YOU said against you i love doing that and im 13 years old so in thy face

[SpreadingtheMuse]

@0israphel0 No need to stick anything in anyones face ;) Except, if you knew what the most powerful laser was, why WOULDNT you want to use it? Do you use the big gun or the little one? ALways go big.

[0israphel0]

may i just point iut that in star trek federation ships (suchs as the enterprise E (the thing on the targeting screen that you saw)) use PHASERS not LASERS phasers use PHASED energy to create a beam (or in some circumstances i.e. a type V phaser a pulse) oh phased energy which has a destructive power SO IN YOUR FACE LOOSER

[SpreadingtheMuse]

@0israphel0 Yeah I kept phasers out of here as much as possible, only using them for generic fight sequences. Most sci fi shows claim to use things other than lasers, but I couldnt let everyone off the hook ;)

Roddenberry originally wanted to use "lasers," but was told by his tech support that they wouldnt do what he wanted them to, so he invented "phasers" out of thin air. It could stand for "Plasma Heated by Amplified Stimulated Emission of Radiation."

[Radimkiller]

Hey, u havent right it all. Lasers can shot down a continental missile, so why not a jet? Issue is in energy and technology, not in physics. And u didnt think about Elektromagnetich guns? thats is a near future of big guns, and then meybe a rifles ( some young scientis create a experimental EM rifle a few years ago)

[SpreadingtheMuse]

@Radimkiller

I did think about Electromagnetic rifles. There's even a whole Schwarzenegger movie about them I almost used. But its all covered under Kinetic Energy weapons. I dont need to say HOW they go that fast, only that they do. Going through every nickel and dime method of acceleration would've taken a whole other ten minute movie.

[isaiahawsum]

@isaiahawsum and light is a particle. It behaves more like a particle than neutrons do, in fact. If something is not made of matter, it is nothing. It also works conversely. You could state that only energy exists, and what appears to be master is just giant clumps of energy. But they are one and the same, just on vastly different size scales.

[isaiahawsum]

@SpreadingtheMuse phaser stands for PHASed Energy Rectification. It used to mean something else, when trek was in it's development, but I can't remember it. And when thing. You mistakenly stated that light is as fast as it gets( or at least many people inthe comments did). To date, neutrinos are actually the fastest discovered particle, and evidence has been found that they are snails comparedto some.

[LouistheHedgehog]

One more thing when it comes to kinetic energy. You forgot to mention relativistic effects. If you can have a mass moving at the speed of light (which is impossible) the kinetic energy is actually INFINITY!

[silazcarbryck]

Mr Muse, I am now making some notes from your tutorial. I did already know a few things about LED lights. Red are lower power consumption, blue a bit higher and green higher power consumption still. And I am being completely honest here, as I really did not know that purple is the best laser light. I did however already choose purple lasers a few years ago as my favourite. Because the colour purple is I believe, more metaphysically charged. You have also missed out the 'politics' of laser beams.

[fronteraster]

@albedoshader ROFL! Yeah im pretty sure it wasnt a laser.. Haha. Yeah, in my original post I was merely putting it out there. I havent been following the story, nor do I know if they already tried confirming it.

[albedoshader]

@fronteraster: Let’s put it this way: It wasn’t a laser that eradicated the dinosaurs. ;)