Duck and Cover

There should be mirror plated power-armour, then you'd be more or less invincible.


You also have to deal with recoil though (like a gatling laser, it might knock you down and lasers go through the bottom of your feet.) or you could just throw a rock at them and it would be useless.

I dunno. Maybe in the game they technically are beams, but graphically they just show a laser bolt. One of the guys in New Reno (Jules, I think) when asked about the Salvatores says that they have guns that can cut a person in half. That sounds like a beam to me.

Also, when people are critically hit with a laser weapon, it shows them as being cut in half.
:scatter:



Now just to get a little off topic. Has anyone else noticed that the dead guy in the Klamath caves, that you find the 10mm pistol on, was killed by a laser?
:crazyeyes:

They probably just had trouble implementiung a beam. Also, all the metal-armours in the games are very resistant to the lasers, so it still is realistic. And even mirrors can only hold out for a short while against lasers before the heat they generate burns through them.

what if it was LABSER (cause the B=by)

oh, NEO doesnt have to dodge lasers...

"when you are ready, you wont have to"

and then he jumps into that guy and he explodes, lol... classic

Well, if Neo was faster than light, or even the same speed, if he was far enough away, he could dodge it. But I guess the same would apply if someone was aiming a laser gun at you from a light year away.

Many mentioned mirrors, they would help reflect a laser beam, provided that they were efficient reflectors at the required wavelengths. However, if a mirror started to degrade, its absorbance would increase, thus increasing degradation. Difficult.

You also have to deal with recoil though (like a gatling laser, it might knock you down

Lasers don’t recoil, because they emit light. Light is not matter.

Plasma weapons would recoil, as plasma is matter.

Lasers are made of light and mirrors reflect light but I suppose if the beam was hot enough it would just burn through the glass.

The beam isn't hot, although it would cause some heating of air that it passes through. If the glass absorbed the wavelength of the laser light sufficiently then it would get hot. Otherwise not. UV or IR lasers could be used for this, if I recall the absorbance spectra of glass correctly.

Maybe in the game they technically are beams, but graphically they just show a laser bolt

Bolt = beam really. You are thinking of a bolt being a short beam.


Dodging:

A laser beam of course travels at the speed of light. Dodge that if you can!

But, it cannot cause damage at the speed of light unless its the death star laser or an equivalent super weapon. The beam must therefore reside on the target for an amount of time to transfer sufficient energy to cause the required amount of damage.

Thus, our character could be hit by a laser, notice his armour starting to burn, and then dodge. The beam wouldn't even have to be visible, since the fact that his armour was on fire would be

Lasers can be reflected. But the optics (reflecting surface) would have to be perfect and clean, even one speck of dust would heat up and cause damage, and the damage would heat up causing more damage, etc. etc. etc.

At least I think so.
:fadein:

Just like James said, you would need to reflect light at the exact wavelenght of the laser. I ahve one Question though, I have a suspition that the entire laser beam is at the exact same frequency/wavelength, no?

tux wrote:You can't see it because I doubt there is sufficient particle residue in the air. And you can't dodge it unless you are neo.

Or if the person shooting is a really really bad shot.

Stainless wrote:

tux wrote:You can't see it because I doubt there is sufficient particle residue in the air. And you can't dodge it unless you are neo.

Or if the person shooting is a really really bad shot.

Well, yeah. Bullets go pretty damn fast. Nowhere near 300,000 KmPS, but they are very fast enough. And they are kinda tough to dodge. You just can't see them as easily as a bright beam coming after. So, lasers would be easier to aim, as a result of that. And that means the point of dodging is moot, for the most part.

Well, then it won't be dodging. It will be standing there and laughing your ass of.

you would need to reflect light at the exact wavelenght of the laser

This would be a problem if you wanted to reflect beams (at a decent efficiency, which is vital) from different lasers having different wavelengths. Whats good for reflecting visible light probably absorbs IR. Glass absorbs IR radiation for example.

I have a suspition that the entire laser beam is at the exact same frequency/wavelength, no?

Yes. Unless the beam was affected by an irregular Doppler shift effect. I'm not sure that this would change the wavelength very much though.

Some lasers can emit at several different wavelengths, simultaneously IIRC. Argon and Krypton gas lasers spring to mind.

You can't see it because I doubt there is sufficient particle residue in the air.

I don't know about this. With very high power lasers, even the light which is scattered by normal air can cause eye damage, so I assume that they would have a visible beam from this scattering. But I don't know

And, of course, if an IR or UV laser was used then this is irrelevant.

But the optics (reflecting surface) would have to be perfect and clean, even one speck of dust would heat up and cause damage, and the damage would heat up causing more damage, etc. etc. etc.

This would be the problem with reflective armour.


I think that a better solution for avoiding laser damage would be ablative armour. This would be where the armour is designed to absorb the laser beam in the usual way by getting hot, the energy is then dispersed by evaporation.

This clearly has problems and inherent limitations, but should be workable given a bit of research. Then all you need is a working laser gun to shoot at it

I still don't think the beam would be visible, even with a failry powerful laser (although it depends on how powerful is "powerful"), but I don't know much about lasers- I am more into experiments with microwaves and neutron guns and such.

how do you propose one would create a neutron gun? what exactly are you reffering to? atomic fusion?

You know, an isotope lodged in a metal chamber with one opening.

Neutron "gun":

Warning: Parents should supervise children under twelve. Contains small parts.


You will need:

1 scarily strong alpha source: preferably pure alpha, gammas will leak out and kill you, you can tell if its good because it really will be hot to touch, and will also glow.

1 beryllium metal disk (the most chemically toxic element there is).

1 cadmium tube (this will be the barrel).

1 cadmium end cap for the tube.


Assembling via remote control, place the source behind the beryllium disk. Place this assembly at one end of the cadmium tube, with the Be pointing down the tube. Place the end cap on the tube behind the source

Like this, where “-“ is the Cd tube, “c” is the Cd end cap, “r” is the source and “be” is the beryllium:

----------------------------------------------------
c r be
c r be
c r be
----------------------------------------------------


If you are using a strongly gamma emitting source then enclose the whole thing in a few hundred kilos of lead.

Provide cooling if necessary.


Note: this won't be any good for death-ray type neutron beams. For that you need a high neutron flux fission reactor. But it would be dangerous and deadly, just fairly slowly.

tux wrote:You know, an isotope lodged in a metal chamber with one opening.

indeed..... "eat my radiation! within 4 weeks you'll be in a hospital bed with burn-like pustules upon your skin!" "MUAHAHAHAH!!!!" yes......

Of course you can dodge laser. Bullet time!!

Errm.. laser beam time!

Actually I believe a small lead chamber filled with sufficient amount of Americium-241 or radium should do the trick if you just want to have some fun, beryllium is not all that necessary.