The Physics of Starship Firepower- Phasers & Disintregration

Here is a explanation of the most iconic weapon in all of Star Trek: The Phaser. Using pop-culture video clips you're sure to recognize, I explain how a phaser is able to both harmlessly make rocks glow and malevolently make unwitting victims disintegrate. Covering a lot of ground including excited electron shells, the definition of "laser," and the States of Matter, there should be something for everyone.

This Physics movie is not only the longest I have made yet, it is the longest movie of ANY KIND I have made in years. It covers more concepts than either of my previous two, and has more personally made CGI than every movie I have made for the last 2 years PUT TOGETHER. As such I am glad I could get it finished, as it was my third attempt to make a 3rd movie since the summer, with the first two ideas not quite having enough umph to get off the ground. This was also made virtually entirely on my brand new laptop, which I had to push it as hard as it would go. As such the sound wanders in and out here and there, and I had to render it at a slightly higher resolution than usual to squeeze in a little more quality. So, enjoy. ;)

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• Star
• Trek
• next
• phasers
• physics
• deep
• space
• pegasus
• kirk
• spock
• laser
• bernard
• finnigan
• Battlestar
• voyager

[SvenTviking]

Surely, if you convert someones entire body to plasma, there is a pretty huge explosion?

[SpreadingtheMuse]

@SvenTviking

You might just spontaneously combust and flame out. Either way you wouldnt feel a thing ;)

[MegaFederation]

1:56 they look exactly like star trek torpedoes how did you get that effect?

[SpreadingtheMuse]

@MegaFederation

Well, I bent the rules. Those ARE Photon Torpedoes. ;)

The FX Program I used has lasers and phasers and bombs and torpedoes. I just used the torpedoes as Proton Electron etc cause it looked cool. The name of the FX program is FXLab.

[corncommy]

When you say each element has its own color, are you talking about spectral lines? Meaning every element produces its own collection of multiple colors at very specific wavelengths?

[SpreadingtheMuse]

The emission spectra lines, yes. Every element releases spectra in its own combination of wavelength lines.

[EnigmaHood]

The problem with turning a person into plasma, is that he would explode violently, while in Star Trek, they tend to disappear without harming the environment or people around them.

I guess you could say instead that disintergraters turn matter into neutrinos. Neutrinos of course interact very little with matter. They can travel through an entire light year of lead without interacting with it.

[MissingMandible]

0:31-0:37 reminded me of a star wars parody sketch. Here's the link: /watch?v=lhXhF2XSy9Q

[shippem]

You sound like the comic guy from the simpsons haha

[badcop2009]

dont worry commander shepard will save u

[Excalibur01]

watching your videos again. Very informative and fun

[Pfandfleisch]

Ok now i understand how a phazer stuns you. You become a heat stroke. XD