Question about the Death Star Superlaser

TrekWarsie · Post by **TrekWarsie** » 2003-07-09 11:54am

Is the Death Star Superlaser a DET weapon, or does it utilize something else?

Howedar · Post by **Howedar** » 2003-07-09 11:56am

As far as we know it is a DET weapon.

Post by **Vympel** » 2003-07-09 11:57am

DET. Unless you buy into Darkstar's MUM theory (Mysterious Unknown Mechanism- i.e. anything except DET).

Darth Servo · Post by **Darth Servo** » 2003-07-09 12:24pm

DET is the default behaviour of energy. If anyone wants to argue for anythign else, they need to provide a lot of evidence and sound reasoning.

Ender · Post by **Ender** » 2003-07-09 03:59pm

Vympel wrote:DET. Unless you buy into Darkstar's MUM theory (Mysterious Unknown Mechanism- i.e. anything except DET).

Aside from violating several laws of science, the MUM theory fails under it's own weight. One of it's chief tenents is that since the DS is fusion powered, that limits the energy of the beam. However that is rendered false by the movie, when hte shields stop the debris from Alderaan.

It is DET, both by analysing the scene and official statements including one in the DS entry at SW.com

Post by **Darth Wong** » 2003-07-10 12:19am

The very notion of having to justify energy transfer from the beam to the planet implies that there is a plausible source of 1E38 joules which can be ignited in the planet's mass for low cost: an utterly moronic and unjustified assertion given the lack of evidence for any chain reaction.

Isolder74 · Post by **Isolder74** » 2003-07-10 12:24am

Darth Wong wrote:The very notion of having to justify energy transfer from the beam to the planet implies that there is a plausible source of 1E38 joules which can be ignited in the planet's mass for low cost: an utterly moronic and unjustified assertion given the lack of evidence for any chain reaction.

yes unless the Planet is overly high in the ammount and density of Fissible materials or is made mostly of Hydrogen(in which case what is the point as no one normal lives there) there is no justification for anything other then pure energy transfer.

Master of Ossus · Post by **Master of Ossus** » 2003-07-10 12:24am

I should point out that DarkStar's MUM theory is not defined (except for his pandering about how saying that the reactants are the "mass of the planet," and the product includes "energy"), and relies on the LACK of a shield. During the debate with Darth Wong, he actually admitted that the theory of a DET superlaser COUPLED WITH an Alderaan shield explained the observations, but refused to admit that that constituted evidence for a DET weapon.

No, the DS superlaser is a DET weapon.

Mad · Post by **Mad** » 2003-07-10 12:28am

According to the opening crawl, the Death Star has "enough power to destroy an entire planet." Anyone arguing against DET is doing so because he or she believes that the DS does not have enough power to destroy a planet on its own. But, as said, the opening crawl of the movie itself would beg to differ. It's DET.

kojikun · Post by **kojikun** » 2003-07-10 02:03am

The death star could be a matter-to-energy converter beam generator. =x

Isolder74 · Post by **Isolder74** » 2003-07-10 02:28am

kojikun wrote:The death star could be a matter-to-energy converter beam generator. =x

Only if it exsisted in the world of Star Trek where everything has to have some technobable way of working

Ted C · Post by **Ted C** » 2003-07-10 09:56am

kojikun wrote:The death star could be a matter-to-energy converter beam generator.

Then the Death Star is easily capable of converting a planet's mass into 5E+41 Joules of energy.

Smashing an Earth-sized planet the way the Death Star did would only require about 1E+38 Joules of energy. You could get that from annihilating about 2% of the Moon, let alone a planetary mass.

If the Empire can easily convert matter to energy, it would be much more efficient to generate enough to destroy a planet by DET than to induce mass conversion in the planet itself. Using matter for fuel would be much more practical and useful than just obliterating it at a distance, anyway.

kojikun · Post by **kojikun** » 2003-07-10 10:03am

Ted C wrote:If the Empire can easily convert matter to energy, it would be much more efficient to generate enough to destroy a planet by DET than to induce mass conversion in the planet itself. Using matter for fuel would be much more practical and useful than just obliterating it at a distance, anyway.

Not necessarilly. While I was bullshitting, if you can generate a beam which
converts matter to pure energy you wouldn't have to expend nearly as
much energy as would be required to blow the planet up, assuming the
beam didn't draw more energy then the planet had mass. This would be
entirely possible within the realm of bullshit physics that SW uses and might
even be part of their power generation system as a way they can extract
useful energy from superdense sources (like blackhole fragments, or
neutronium) without having to have antimatter.

But then, I was bullshitting to begin with.