Laser and plasma weapons in movies

I was having a nerdy moment, and started thinking about how in Movies, in the older days, futuristic or alien weaponry where Lasers that burned wholes in people or things, then all of a sudden, these Lasers seemed to dissapear from movies, and instead you had Plasma ammo, guns shooting plasma etc..

An example is: In the verry first Predator movie, that shoulder cannon shot a Green Laser IIRC it burned a nice whole in one soldier, and took of the arm of another, annyway, that guns shoots something else in later movies and is referred to as a plasma caster.


My question is: What exactly is this Plasma? And when exactly did laser get replaced by plasma and why?

So you couldn't just Wiki the damn thing, could you?

Originally Posted by Holger Danske

So you couldn't just Wiki the damn thing, could you?

I ment Plasma as a weapon, and I figured it would be an interesting topic no need to get angry at me man Also I didn't know the stuff actually existed, interesting tough, will we ever be able to harness it as a weapon?

Originally Posted by sabaku_no_gaara

I ment Plasma as a weapon, and I figured it would be an interesting topic no need to get angry at me man Also I didn't know the stuff actually existed, interesting tough, will we ever be able to harness it as a weapon?

The plasma weapons we see in sci-fi use forcefield technology to packet the plasma energy into projectiles, so something like that could be possible. Though I'm betting a real life plasma weapon would more likely end up looking like a super flamethrower or it would be delivered as a missile.

Blasters in Star Wars are plasma based weapons btw.

Originally Posted by Helm

Th

Blasters in Star Wars are plasma based weapons btw.

really? I allways though they where lasers

Originally Posted by sabaku_no_gaara

really? I allways though they where lasers

Dear Lord. You really need to learn some basic physics, lad.

Plasma is the forth state of matter when you heat it beyond a certain point, the stars are made from plasma for instance.

Another example would be in the original Terminator btw "Plasma rifle in the 40 watt range."

The most likely reason why plasma largely replaced lasers in sci-fi is that it looks and sounds a bit cooler.

To answer the second question, I think Lasers were considered rather corny as they had been used since the start of science fiction and Directors wanted something new and more exotic. Also, perhaps a special effect plasma 'bolt' was cheaper than a laser stream. As far as I know plasma weapons only really came into fashion in sci-fi in the 80's, but I'm no expert.

Isn't it also because lasers are too common now? The entire concept of a laser is pretty much common knowledge these days and not exotic enough I'd think.

Originally Posted by Manco

Isn't it also because lasers are too common now? The entire concept of a laser is pretty much common knowledge these days and not exotic enough I'd think.

Fortunately, at least Star Trek capitalized on the concept of phasers.

A laser would be a beam rather than a projectile.

they where beams you silly sodsf ,;:mdz k look I know what I saw they where smaall beams

They're more like a long bullet than a beam, a laser travels at the speed of light so it would be one continous beam from the gun to the target and it would reach the target instantly, you wouldn't see it flying over the table like that.

I may be drunk but i can tell beam form ball of plasma this is laser beams

A laser beam is a continuous line from point of origin to the target. These aren't, they're plasma weapons. Even according to Lucas.

well back in the day they where called laser blasts

Originally Posted by sabaku_no_gaara

well back in the day they where called laser blasts

For one, the small arms one have always been called blasters in the films; second, any instance of them being called "lasers" was just colloquial terminology in-universe. Words like Superlaser, Turbolaser, Laser Cannon, and others are just colloquialisms for different scales of blaster weapons. They're explained by numerous sources as being plasma projectiles. That is canonical fact.

Originally Posted by MaximiIian

For one, the small arms one have always been called blasters in the films; second, any instance of them being called "lasers" was just colloquial terminology in-universe. Words like Superlaser, Turbolaser, Laser Cannon, and others are just colloquialisms for different scales of blaster weapons. They're explained by numerous sources as being plasma projectiles. That is canonical fact.

The "Superlasers" (AKA "Composite Lasers") like the death star cannon and the ball guns on a LAAT/i actually are lasers I believe. They travel at lightspeed and form continuous beams rather than "shots".

Originally Posted by Serious Spamurai

Hand-held laser weapons would probably be best utilized for long-range sniping, since standard weapons are limited by bullet-drop, accuracy, humidity, wind and the time delay of the bullet traveling to the target. Laser weapons would have none of those problems.

It wouldn't be like that sniper mission in CoD4 anymore, it'd be one tap, over twice the range and he'd have a hole burned straight through his brain/his brain would have been boiled in the skull/something else nasty that a high-powered military laser would do to you.

And then EVERYONE in the area would know exactly where you are, because of the continuous beam of visible energy and all that.

I think it would make the mission quite a bit harder.

Originally Posted by the_mango55

The "Superlasers" (AKA "Composite Lasers") like the death star cannon and the ball guns on a LAAT/i actually are lasers I believe. They travel at lightspeed and form continuous beams rather than "shots".

No, they're just a stream of blaster plasma rather than a bolt. If it were a laser, you wouldn't see it at all in space, since it'd be moving at c.

And then EVERYONE in the area would know exactly where you are, because of the continuous beam of visible energy and all that.

Not really. Think like a laser-pointer- you don't see the beam itself.
But the problem with a viable laser weapon is, the power consumption necessary for a laser that can kill a human would render it a vehicular weapon only. A handheld weapon is completely improbable, unless we develop extra powerful batteries.

Originally Posted by Mathias

In that time, you won't even have to time react in any way.

Yeah, unless you're like, Chinese or something.

Originally Posted by MaximiIian

No, they're just a stream of blaster plasma rather than a bolt. If it were a laser, you wouldn't see it at all in space, since it'd be moving at c.

That would be true if it weren't Star Wars

But you shouldn't be able to hear the death star blowing up either, so I don't think it tells us much.

These composite beam weapons, especially visible on the gunships, have all the properties of lasers, not of blasters. They have continuous beams and they cut things in half for example.

Originally Posted by MaximiIian

Not really. Think like a laser-pointer- you don't see the beam itself.
But the problem with a viable laser weapon is, the power consumption necessary for a laser that can kill a human would render it a vehicular weapon only. A handheld weapon is completely improbable, unless we develop extra powerful batteries.

The more powerful a laser is, the more visible the beam is.



^ and this is not a powerful laser at all, only strong enough to pop balloons.