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Why UFP design isomagnetic disintegrator to begin with in practice Star Trek TOS Area grenade launcher had extremely long range. So why UFP build the isomagnetic disintegrator it could issue range fire grenade.

JasonB wrote:Why UFP design isomagnetic disintegrator to begin with in practice Star Trek TOS Area grenade launcher had extremely long range. So why UFP build the isomagnetic disintegrator it could issue range fire grenade.

Because the Federation forgot the design principle of KISS or "keeping it simple stupid."

paladin wrote:

JasonB wrote:Why UFP design isomagnetic disintegrator to begin with in practice Star Trek TOS Area grenade launcher had extremely long range. So why UFP build the isomagnetic disintegrator it could issue range fire grenade.

Because the Federation forgot the design principle of KISS or "keeping it simple stupid."

*Star Trek suxs! hurf durf!*

The weapon in TOS 'Arena' was a mortar equivalent. The Isomagnetic Disintegrator was more like a bazooka. (Hence the Worfzooka nickname) They're two different roles. (Indirect vs Direct fire.) Hence two different weapons is, in fact, realistic.

Worfzooka might even little better Kirk had during Star Terk Area. Look at this img It look if hit ground right in between soldier locationed. If Worf could somehow guild it to target. However does show Worfzooka has nearly fire power mordren Bozooka.

What I find interesting is that from what I can tell that explosion is much weaker than even a modern day hand grenade.
I see no shrapnel, no limbs being blown away and no people dying in horrible ways.

From what Wikipedia tells me the lethal radius of modern hand grenades is between 15 and 20 meters. And this thing does not seem to kill the guy standing like 1 meter away from it. Or at least it does not seem to kill him in the spectacular way that it should.

I dunno, we dont know the kill mechanism of the disintegrator, or whatever. It could be blast/shock of some kind. That close it could be dangerous. It just would usck at longer ranges. Or it could be some technobabble damage mechanism.

Maybe it was set to 'stun' and not 'kill'?

Or maybe Phasers' kill setting isn't something that really has to nastily burn/incinerate the target to kill it. Burning a target and thermal damage (in general) is not among the most effective of kill mechanisms, and it actually is somewhat inhumane (think of a flamethrower - who wants to burn/boil alive?) I doubt phasers routinely are required to inflict savage burning on the target to kill it. Instead, I suspect that the "kill" setting is perhaps either a more limited/localized "disintegration" effect (disintegrate part or all of a person's vitals - good luck living without part of oyur heart.) or it may be some nasty "neural disruptor" type weapon - think of a more lethal stun setting, basically. It's someting I've considered SW weapons capable of doing (kiling people without blowing big holes in them or inflicitng large/painful/visible burns.)

That does not mean phasers (or blasters) would be incapable of inficting burns or thermal damage in general (eg melting something.) it just means that it's not a primary kill mechanism.

Or maybe it did use shrapnel damage, but the shrapnel took a form we wouldn't associate with a "simple" grenade. The Federation has an odd tendency to "over-tech" even the simplest items (putting computers in barbells/dumbbells is a particularily extreme example there) maybe they would try to over-tech a grenade too. (doesn't mean it would be ineffecitve of course.)

Connor MacLeod wrote:Or maybe Phasers' kill setting isn't something that really has to nastily burn/incinerate the target to kill it. Burning a target and thermal damage (in general) is not among the most effective of kill mechanisms, and it actually is somewhat inhumane (think of a flamethrower - who wants to burn/boil alive?) I doubt phasers routinely are required to inflict savage burning on the target to kill it. Instead, I suspect that the "kill" setting is perhaps either a more limited/localized "disintegration" effect (disintegrate part or all of a person's vitals - good luck living without part of oyur heart.) or it may be some nasty "neural disruptor" type weapon - think of a more lethal stun setting, basically. It's someting I've considered SW weapons capable of doing (kiling people without blowing big holes in them or inflicitng large/painful/visible burns.)

That does not mean phasers (or blasters) would be incapable of inficting burns or thermal damage in general (eg melting something.) it just means that it's not a primary kill mechanism.

TOS had basically two settings: stun, and kill. Kill was basically a 'vapourise/obliterate' method where the target was completely destroyed, while stun just knocked them out (until TUC, where a stun shot at point blank range could kill). However, there were a few instances where phasers were used to heat rocks, I can think of at least two instances - 'The Enemy Within' and 'A Private Little War'. Also, the renegade Captain Tracey fired a phaser that was obviously set to kill at a communicator console Spock was using. The console was completely destroyed, but the interesting thing there is Spock was severely injured. (Spock wasn't obviously burnt yet he was 'injured' in some way, according to McCoy) In TWOK, Kirk fires a phaser at the brainbug that came out of Checkov's ears. It was melted and on fired IIRC. But at the same time you have the Starfleet assassins, Burke and Lanstrom, who beamed over to Gorkon's flagship in TUC - their phasers were used to kill the klingons but they didn't disintegrate or burn their victims.

Anyway TNG introduced the whole levels 1-16 thing, and they retained the ability to heat rocks (used in DS9's 'Rocks and Shoals'), so at least part of the settings utilised thermal damage. I also remember Picard taking a direct hit to his chest with some kind of weapon - the effects burnt his tunic. The whole 16 levels thing is also pretty interesting. The tech manual goes into it more but at the very least there's the implication that there are more options for a phaser than simply 'stunning' or 'killing'. Indeed, from my memory there are at least a couple of 'stun' settings, as well as kill settings, and some which can only be described as 'overkill'. (in reality, too much power for use against a single humanoid target but I imagine is used to destroy materiel - like the use of level 16 with wide beam to carve a crawlspace in the middle of a cave rock wall)

Or maybe it did use shrapnel damage, but the shrapnel took a form we wouldn't associate with a "simple" grenade. The Federation has an odd tendency to "over-tech" even the simplest items (putting computers in barbells/dumbbells is a particularily extreme example there) maybe they would try to over-tech a grenade too. (doesn't mean it would be ineffecitve of course.)

Possibly. Although if it were set to stun, it would be consistent with the Federation's desire to equip its forces with non-lethal settings for their weaponry.

Destructionator XIII wrote:

(putting computers in barbells/dumbbells is a particularily extreme example there)

Do you know what the context is on that? People make fun of it a lot, but I find most those things were taken out of context....

Besides, it isn't even that silly to put a little computer on the weights. It'd help you keep track of how many reps you've done, maybe count burned calories, etc. I'd be surprised if it didn't exist in real life, actually.

It was seen when Nog and Jake moved in together. It was Nog's personal exercise equipment not starfleet issue. It also seemed to have various setting that let it simulate various types of barbells/dumbells iirc. So versatilite and space saving. Pretty neat really. I don't know why people take offence at them.

Crazedwraith wrote: It was seen when Nog and Jake moved in together. It was Nog's personal exercise equipment not starfleet issue. It also seemed to have various setting that let it simulate various types of barbells/dumbells iirc. So versatilite and space saving. Pretty neat really. I don't know why people take offence at them.

It should not be considered exotic tech since it most likely uses grav plating tech to simulate various weights.