Is it possible to create a phaser?

[m021]

[Hyper]

[m021]

I don't get your last sentence. Do you mean relativity must be true, or do you mean the opposite?

Surely in Trek they use the that theorem (that's why they use a Warp Field) but who says they're right? They have no more knowledge of that than we do...

[DeltasVoyager]

well we do have laser, but they cant harm you

[Mustkillbret]

yes they can!! if they focus it right it can cut through metals, in laser eye surgery, the cut through the lens on your eye and operate by firing laser beams into your eye!!

[Hyper]

There are pretty mean lasers out there that are easily capable of killing people, even destroying missiles. I used to work in the sircraft industry and lasers were used to drill fine holes in panels.

[webtaz99]

If anything is possible, try slamming a revolving door.

The problem with lasers is efficiency(most have less than 2%). The free electron laser with a superconducting accelerator has reached nearly 60% and could theoretically acheive 90-95% (and it's tunable, too!).

[voyager123456789]

Its almost impossible. jk.

[starnova]

[gul Lemek III.]

Maby someday, yes. But I'm almost 100% sure none of us will live to see it.

[Five - seveN]

[Solitary Poet]

Actually they already have created a real Phaser (Photonic Laser). I just watched a really cool documentary, on the Discovery Channel, about it and the beam is a really cool pinkish purple! They are planning on mounting them in the noses of jumbo jets and using them to shoot down enemy missiles. They showed a really cool test where they cut a hole in a piece of glass to show the difference between a Laser and a Phaser, a normal laser would normally go right through transparent things like glass without harming it because it�s just light but a Phaser is a lot more than that.

[webtaz99]

We built a measely 100W CO2 laser. It had in invisible (10.6 um) beam and it would shatter glass. Get your facts straight.

Any material has what is called an absorption spectrum, which indicates what percentage of a given amount of "light" (or EM energy in general) it will absorb at different frequencies. No material is completely transparent ant any frequency; it will absorb some of the applied energy. Also, every material has at least one (and usually many) frequencies at which it will absorb nearly all the applied energy.

The real key to using laser power is to match the laser's frequency to the target material. Obviously , normal "window" glass is made to pass energy in the visible spectrum (duh!), but it absorbs strongly in the IR and far UV.

The proposed Airborne Laser System uses an IR frequency which goes through air (and to a lesser degree, water vapor) but is strongly absorbed by most metals and composite materials.

[starnova]

thats kinda cool a laser that can blow a missle

[webtaz99]

It helps that the missile is full of explosive propellants.

[starnova]

for example what if the missle were to create a shockwave and if and i stress IF it hit the plane what would happen?

[Solitary Poet]

It can shoot down a missile form hundreds of miles away.

[starnova]

ooo that would make alot more sense

[webtaz99]

Actually, the ABL is designed as a "Theater Defense System", meaning that it protects a given "battle space". It targets short- to medium-range "theater ballistic missiles" like the SCUD. It is NOT intended to hit ICMBs. It is also intended to aquire and hit missiles so quickly that they are exploded during their boost phase, when they are closer to the launch point than the intended target.

[Solitary Poet]

Yes, very far away.

[Security Chief]

I like your idea of the phaser!

[webtaz99]

Can anyone state what it is that a phaser emits or generates without resorting to Treknobabble?

[starnova]

whats a treknobable?

[Five - seveN]