Another Half-Baked Blaster theory (repeat?)

His Divine Shadow · Post by **His Divine Shadow** » 2004-09-03 02:04am

Illuminatus Primus wrote:What the hell does "light in a spiral" do for us? Its still moving sublight and will arc. It doesn't work.

Yeah I distinctly remember saying that as well in my post.

Bolts however are translucent, which means they're really not likely to be projectiles with mass then and the ANH trash compactor scene(amongst others) disproves the idea that they fire beams of which the visible glow is just a ripple along an invisible beam.

So what are they? They exhibit very problematic and contradictory properties, which was my point.

EDIT:
Unless they are some funky weird exotic massless particles that both travel in a helix/spiral and are unaffected by gravity.

Mad · Post by **Mad** » 2004-09-03 08:57am

They may still be projectiles with mass, just not solid projectiles.

Illuminatus Primus · Post by **Illuminatus Primus** » 2004-09-03 09:16am

Exactly; the gravity-defying energetic-Tibanna-blob may very well sometimes be translucent.

His Divine Shadow · Post by **His Divine Shadow** » 2004-09-03 09:42am

Mad wrote:They may still be projectiles with mass, just not solid projectiles.

What sort of blob would this be? Could you elaborate on it or maybe link me to where you have? Because I don't see how blobs can contain lots of energy like that.

Illuminatus Primus · Post by **Illuminatus Primus** » 2004-09-03 09:45am

I use the term blob because it cannot be a plasma speaking strictly. We know some blasters fire high-energy projectiles (I dislike the term projectile since is implies solidity) of Tibanna which defy gravity.

The energized packet of Tibanna must be discrete in of itself because it is quite clear most of them contain no solid projectile.

Gil Hamilton · Post by **Gil Hamilton** » 2004-09-03 09:45am

In real real life, it's actually really easy to explain why in the Original Trilogy why would sometimes show damage before the bolt hit it. What is going is that they film the real shot and add the blaster bolt later, in post production. Unfortunately, since the damaged caused by the blaster is an appliance that they stick on the actor (like in the example of Lukes hand) or a burn mark on a piece of armor, they have to film the entire shot with the damage in place from the beginning. So we see the damage from the shot then we see the shot hit, as there is no other way they could have done it when they originally filmed the more (lacking any sort of decent CGI in those days).

However, we never once see no damage, then damage appearing on a person, then the bolt hitting with a blaster (we do with turbolasers, which can be explained slightly differently in terms of SPX).

Not that anyone actually cares about real explaination, of course.

Illuminatus Primus · Post by **Illuminatus Primus** » 2004-09-03 09:48am

You're a jackass, Gil.

"Not that any body cares about real explanations"

Boo hoo, go fuck yourself. I'm sure you are more reasonable in what you appraise to be empirical analysis over Mike and most of the veterans on this board. I don't have time for sorry-loser fucks like you. Go suck a cock.

Mad · Post by **Mad** » 2004-09-03 09:52am

His Divine Shadow wrote:
Mad wrote:They may still be projectiles with mass, just not solid projectiles.
What sort of blob would this be? Could you elaborate on it or maybe link me to where you have? Because I don't see how blobs can contain lots of energy like that.

I dunno. Maybe high-energy Jell-O, because they can store a nearly infinite amount in the power packs (there's always room...).

Whatever is going on, it pretty much has involve exotic superphysics.

Although, perhaps it could be that the energy content of the blaster bolt is locked up in the actual mass of the bolt. Somehow some kind of mass-energy conversion takes place when the bolt strikes. But then we have the problem of why this conversion doesn't always take place (bouncing effects against various materials). And there are other problems, too, such as the release being directed... so it's not much better than where we started.

Ender · Post by **Ender** » 2004-09-03 01:38pm

The Silence and I wrote:E-11 shots are translucent? Bugger. Are any blaster shots opaque? Because some bad screen caps I've got kicking around have them as opaque bolts, but obviously the DVD would have priority...

Some shots are solid, others translucent. For example, in the droideka scene, shots fired at the Jedi are opaque, but the deflected shots translucent. Most odd.

Kurgan · Post by **Kurgan** » 2004-09-03 07:00pm

Them being translucent alone doesn't mean they can't be physical. After all, there are lots of physical objects which are translucent in real life.

I do like Mad's theory though...

Hey IP, that time of the month again?? I think maybe you misinterpreted what he meant by "real explanation."

Illuminatus Primus · Post by **Illuminatus Primus** » 2004-09-03 07:09pm

No Kurgan, I would've simply posted something about SoD to anyone else.

But Gil got his ass whooped in two debates about Suspension of Disbelief. In the last he ran away without conceding like a little bitch and he has this shitty attitude of popping in to make a snide remark about SoD-analysis (like when I agreed with Connor on how the model itself is not canonical, just its images in the canon film) even though he was too spineless to stand his ground or concede.

Kurgan · Post by **Kurgan** » 2004-09-03 08:31pm

Ok. Not having witnessed those debates your flame looked like it came out of nowhere.

Illuminatus Primus · Post by **Illuminatus Primus** » 2004-09-03 09:30pm

I was only involved in the first; the second has its personal stakes lying much more with Spanky and Howedar than myself.

The Silence and I · Post by **The Silence and I** » 2004-09-03 09:51pm

I wonder, what's the explanation for the several blaster shots that bounce off the grass at Naboo? Do they fit within current theory? (It may be important to note they had already been reflected by the Gungan personal shields.) What comes to my mind is a guidance error, as if the bolts were projectiles (translucent ones...made of glass!

) and were screwed up by the shield so they might change direction upon a light impact. Or something. Of course, the perfect reflection angles make a guidence error seem unlikely, so I ask again, what's the current explanation?

Kurgan · Post by **Kurgan** » 2004-09-03 10:04pm

Sorry it's off topic, but I too have a question.

How do we rationalize the shots that miss Queen Amidala's ship that were fired by the Trade Federation battleships (the "blockade") in TMP?

Naboo isn't supposed to have a planetary shield, so did those turbolasers have catastrophic effects on the planet/populance?

Sorry, I sort of remember that question being asked but never heard the response...

Illuminatus Primus · Post by **Illuminatus Primus** » 2004-09-03 11:41pm

They're not necessarily gigaton-level shots, and quite possibly low-megaton or high-kiloton range hits.

Given the nature of blast-effects (nuclear weapons) versus penetrating energy beams, unless it just happens to land in a densely populated area, I doubt they hurt anything.

And even so, they wouldn't care.

Kurgan · Post by **Kurgan** » 2004-09-04 12:16am

Maybe the "Death toll is catastrophic!" message was really referring to the missed shots...

As to the Trade Federation caring, I'm not sure about that one. Did they have any qualms about mass slaughter of the Naboo inhabitants?

Well anyway, nevermind.

His Divine Shadow · Post by **His Divine Shadow** » 2004-09-04 07:05am

Gil Hamilton wrote:Not that anyone actually cares about real explaination, of course.

So don't mention it then.

His Divine Shadow · Post by **His Divine Shadow** » 2004-09-04 07:22am

Illuminatus Primus wrote:I use the term blob because it cannot be a plasma speaking strictly. We know some blasters fire high-energy projectiles (I dislike the term projectile since is implies solidity) of Tibanna which defy gravity.

The energized packet of Tibanna must be discrete in of itself because it is quite clear most of them contain no solid projectile.

Allow me to try and summarize both theories as I understand them.

My theory
Tibanna gas is energized and turned into plasma, this is processed through the blasters collimating circuits and the end product is an energy bolt with anti-gravitational(or gravity-ignoring) properties that travel in a tight helix, giving them slower than light forward propagation and no arcing in gravity wells, the bolt's visible glow is a side effect of decaying back into "normal" particles and the forward tip of it might not always be visible, hence why we sometimes see damage before impact with blasters.

The speed of the bolt might be dependant on the power of the shot or it might be set manually(like short range, medium range and long range), or the gun might adjust itself for that automatically(might use an invisible range finding laser to determine the most appropriate bolt speed).
The collimating circuits mentioned in sources might be responsible for bolt speed.

Pg. 7: Common blaster weapons use high-energy gas for ammunition, activated by a power cell and converted into plasma. The plasma is released from a magnetic bottle effect to fire through collimating componets as a coherent energy bolt. Inherent instabilities limit the ability to precisely aim a blaster bolt, but knowing one's weapon well can strengthen marksmanship. Plasma energy is dissipated as the bolt travels, limiting range as the energy as the energy becomes incoherent. Longer range is developed by longer blast tubes, which align the plasma carrier waves more closely through additional galven circuitry, lens crystals, or other collimating devices.

(ref: Star Wars The Visual Dictionary)

Galven circuitry(or another method of collimating, this collimation method might be the big difference between blasters, laser-cannons and TL's and all their weird behaviour) focuses the blaster bolt which is unstable due to it being some funky exotic energy that likes to travel in a helix rather than straight forward.
The bolt being made of some kind of funky light also makes the presence of crystals e a little more understandable, albeit not alot.

The blob theory is pretty much the same except that the "blob" is energized tibanna gas that has antigravitational properties and is launched through a magentic bottle(magnetic acceleration?).

This blob of non-solid matter is able to keep itself cohesive and contain a large amount of energy without wanting to burst apart, the bolt looses energy through it's glow.

Same reasons for varying bolt speed.

Well I think my theory works better in regard to the directed release of the energy and certain technicalities mentioned in EU sources, the blob theory however is in agreement with various mentions of blasters being some kind of particle weapons, as well as being more in line with the AOTC:VD and it's novelisation.
Though I find the thought of the blob harder to visualize than I do a helix of energy.

edited - did some updating/refining

His Divine Shadow · Post by **His Divine Shadow** » 2004-09-04 07:24am

Mad wrote:Although, perhaps it could be that the energy content of the blaster bolt is locked up in the actual mass of the bolt. Somehow some kind of mass-energy conversion takes place when the bolt strikes. But then we have the problem of why this conversion doesn't always take place (bouncing effects against various materials). And there are other problems, too, such as the release being directed... so it's not much better than where we started.

Well in the situations they are deflected they are hitting a ships hull which might well be having it's shields or, or some kind of magnetising going on like with the trash compactor, the other time when they bounce of the grass they are in close proximity to a shield which might be responsible.