How fast are Blaster shots?

Post by **Ghost Rider** » 2003-05-24 01:43pm

Seriously this is something of contention because I have heard 60 MPH to low KM/Sec...

What say you?

Is it a low fast ball or something only luck or pre-cog is going to avoid?

Illuminatus Primus · Post by **Illuminatus Primus** » 2003-05-24 01:47pm

Typically between 1/2 km - 1 km/sec

Joe · Post by **Joe** » 2003-05-24 02:07pm

Illuminatus Primus wrote:Typically between 1/2 km - 1 km/sec

Can you give me a reference for that? There's someone in OSF claiming that all empirical evidence points to blaster shots travelling at only 60 MPH, a number I would very much like to definitively refute.

Keevan_Colton · Post by **Keevan_Colton** » 2003-05-24 02:16pm

60mph is a funny one....cars passing me on the motorway are faster than blaster bolts....

Illuminatus Primus · Post by **Illuminatus Primus** » 2003-05-24 02:24pm

Durran Korr wrote:
Illuminatus Primus wrote:Typically between 1/2 km - 1 km/sec
Can you give me a reference for that? There's someone in OSF claiming that all empirical evidence points to blaster shots travelling at only 60 MPH, a number I would very much like to definitively refute.

He's completely full of shit. HDS calced blaster bolts--the lowest velocity one I can remember was around 400 m/s IIRC.

CaptainChewbacca · Post by **CaptainChewbacca** » 2003-05-24 02:25pm

What's the muzzle velocity of conventional bullets?

YT300000 · Post by **YT300000** » 2003-05-24 03:21pm

CaptainChewbacca wrote:What's the muzzle velocity of conventional bullets?

From a handgun, ~ 1350 km/h, but it really depends on the gun.

YT300000 · Post by **YT300000** » 2003-05-24 03:28pm

They must be more than 100 km/h, because in RoTJ, in the speeder chase, the scout trooper shoots at Leia from his sidearm, but the bolt would go behind her by quite a bit if it was that slow.

Darth Phoenix · Post by **Darth Phoenix** » 2003-05-24 04:29pm

There is also evidence from AOTC, in the Battle between the Clones and the Droids, when they are chargin at each other there was already shots being exchanged...

Connor MacLeod · Post by **Connor MacLeod** » 2003-05-24 06:22pm

A blaster shot moving at 60 mph would be a massive projectile, and thus should be subject to gravity drop over long distances (IE AOTC, TESB, etc.) Mike's discussed this numerous times.

Sir Sirius · Post by **Sir Sirius** » 2003-05-24 06:50pm

CaptainChewbacca wrote:What's the muzzle velocity of conventional bullets?

250-600 m/s for most modern handguns. Eg. 340-500 m/s for 9mm Luger and 260-390 m/s for .45 ACP.
700-1200 m/s for most modern rifles. Eg. 900-1100 m/s for .223 Remington and 750-1000 m/s for .30-06.
Some Sub-caliber rounds can go up to 1500 m/s (for example the Swedish army uses a 4,7mm sub-caliber round fired from a .308 Win with a muzzle velocity of 1400 m/s), but those are rare.

YT300000 · Post by **YT300000** » 2003-05-24 06:57pm

There are also Hypersonic railguns, but I don't think thats what you mean.

Jaris Merc · Post by **Jaris Merc** » 2003-05-25 09:38am

In the movies it looks like you could dodge the freaking things.... maybe the light part that you can see isnt what kills you? I dont know....

Grand Admiral Thrawn · Post by **Grand Admiral Thrawn** » 2003-05-25 10:03am

Jaris Merc wrote:In the movies it looks like you could dodge the freaking things.... maybe the light part that you can see isnt what kills you? I dont know....

Who dodges them?

Cal Wright · Post by **Cal Wright** » 2003-05-25 11:14am

You know...that fast little rabbit Ewok from Battle for Endor

Jaris Merc · Post by **Jaris Merc** » 2003-05-25 12:00pm

I didnt say that you COULD dodge them... Just that it looked like you could.. This is becuase in the movies it looks like there traveling slowly * like 300-400 FPS or so* I dont know how fast there going but damn I play paintball and Ive dodged paintballs that looked like they were moving faster than the blaster bolts.

Joe · Post by **Joe** » 2003-05-25 12:26pm

Jaris Merc wrote:In the movies it looks like you could dodge the freaking things.... maybe the light part that you can see isnt what kills you? I dont know....

It's not, and we have canon evidence that it's not.

Jaris Merc · Post by **Jaris Merc** » 2003-05-25 05:32pm

gotya. I remember reading about ship based turbo lasers that it wasent the green part that you see that does the damage so i guess the same applys for blaster bolts.

His Divine Shadow · Post by **His Divine Shadow** » 2003-05-25 06:12pm

Here:
http://www.hisdivineshadow.com/misc/ima ... iagram.jpg

And one with an extrapolation of possible speeds at greater ranges:
http://www.hisdivineshadow.com/misc/ima ... agram2.jpg

The first one is calced using Jango Fett's pistols when he's firing on Obi-Wan on the landing platform, around 120-150m/s

Next up is the scene where the Droid Deka's fire down the corridor after Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan.

Essentially what the movies shows about bolt speeds is that regardless of range the bolt always takes no more than 2-4 frames to reach it's target.

Slartibartfast · Post by **Slartibartfast** » 2003-05-29 07:08pm

If you can fire from a stationary position, at a speeder bike moving away from you at 700 km/h or so and hit them, they must be much faster than that.

Reminds me of the scene from Rat Race with Whoopi Goldberg traveling in an experimental rocket car alongside a bullet

Slartibartfast · Post by **Slartibartfast** » 2003-05-29 07:12pm

His Divine Shadow wrote:Essentially what the movies shows about bolt speeds is that regardless of range the bolt always takes no more than 2-4 frames to reach it's target.

Would that put blaster speeds out of the "suspension of disbelief" category and into the "movie visual effects" category then, for the purpose of debates?

SWPIGWANG · Post by **SWPIGWANG** » 2003-05-30 09:53pm

Maybe blasters are varible speed with different weapons and different power settings or something.....

Connor MacLeod · Post by **Connor MacLeod** » 2003-05-31 03:55pm

cmdrwilkens had an excellent point once in AOTC - where Clone troopers fire on Dooku's sailer as it leaves (you can still see bolts flying past, IIRC) Geonosis. This suggests blaster bolts moving at 300 m/s (AOTC acceleration value, official.) or 50 to 200 km/s (Mike Wong's AOTC Analysis.) And they not only still move substantially FASTER than the sailer, they do not appear to exhibit any arcing effect either. (arcing effect - a drop in gravity over long distances for a massive object)

Death from the Sea · Post by **Death from the Sea** » 2003-06-01 08:21pm

YT300000 wrote:They must be more than 100 km/h, because in RoTJ, in the speeder chase, the scout trooper shoots at Leia from his sidearm, but the bolt would go behind her by quite a bit if it was that slow.

That example is pointless because they are both on speeder bikes going aproximately the same speed, so the blaster bolt is traveling the speed of the speeder bikes + however fast the blaster bolt is traveling.

YT300000 · Post by **YT300000** » 2003-06-01 09:21pm

Death from the Sea wrote:
YT300000 wrote:They must be more than 100 km/h, because in RoTJ, in the speeder chase, the scout trooper shoots at Leia from his sidearm, but the bolt would go behind her by quite a bit if it was that slow.
That example is pointless because they are both on speeder bikes going aproximately the same speed, so the blaster bolt is traveling the speed of the speeder bikes + however fast the blaster bolt is traveling.

The bolt would still arc back somewhat. A better example on my part would be when Leia is standing, shooting at the moving speeder bike, and she gets a few shots close, and finally hits.

I think that starships shoot bolts much faster than normal blasters do. In ESB, the bolts the Falcon dodged flew right past it quite quickly, and it was going full throttle.

StarDestroyer.Net BBS

How fast are Blaster shots?

How fast are Blaster shots?

hmmm

Re: hmmm

Re: hmmm