Scifi DEW Pistol Analysis and Practicality Of Usage.....

[Spacescifi]

On scifi TV, movies, and videogames,  virtually everybody and their mom is toting a DEW or laser pistol.

However an analysis of their effects indicates that would not be the case if we had them.

Safe Enough To Use Scifi Ionizer Beam Pistol: Somehow it ionizes air into a beam that does not diverge but only stops at the maximum distance the gun can project the ionization effect (2 kilometers). Beam is hot enough to cut through an inch of steel every half second, so a sustained beam could cut through 20 inches of steel in ten seconds.

Basically we have a gun that does what Homelander's heat vision does more or less.

Even so, you would still want to wear eye protection glasses or a visor because any reflected light from the beam could damage your vision.

As we know, lasers tend to produce a lot of waste heat, and while the scifi ionizer beam pistol is not a laser per se (because it requires atmosphere to work and will not work in vacuum) it still produces a massive amount of waste heat.

So what keeps the gun from melting? Scifi time warp field technology embedded into the gun's internals.

The gun still generates enormous amounts of waste heat, but the relative time it takes to spread far enough across the gun's body to cause a critical failure (actually an explosion) is slowed dramatically due to time warping inside the gun frame.

Basically once you fire the gun you have a few hours before you have to connect it's coolant chamber to water or coolant to run through the gun's body walls and bleed off the heat gradually. During heat bleed off the time warp delay of the heat absorption can be increased to speed up heat bleed off, but not too much or you would risk a critical failure. Because the gun has a potent power bank source that is basically like a bomb if overheated.

A Slightly More Realistic Scifi Laser Pistol That Is Less Safe To Use:

Like the scifi ionizer beam pistol, the scifi laser pistol also uses a powerbank that will explode like a bomb if overheated.

Unlike the ionizer beam pistol, the scifi laser beam pistol actually fires a laser beam rather than magically ionizing the air into a beam that won't spread that also stops at a maximum range in air. As such the laser beam will spread and weaken in power over distance, but unlike the ionizer beam also works in vacuum.

Like the ionizer beam the laser beam can also cut through an inch of steel every half second. Also the scifi laser beam also uses time warp technology to delay the heat absorption  from waste heat until you can gradually cool it via coolant.

Think of it like the sun. A nanosecond in front of the sun is actually survivable, and the gun's heat build up is much like that. Still, if you don't connect it to a coolant tank for heat bleed off within a few hours of firing your gun will go KA-BOOM!

The safety difference: The laser beam spread is less safe than the ionizer beam which has a max range but won't spread (the ionizer beam is basically like an instant 2 kilometer long light saber lol). The laser beam spread means distant shots are imprecise due to beam spread. In other words... not really the best choice for a hostage rescue situation unless when fired you are close enough where beam spread is not a concern.

Actual Practical Uses:

Scifi Laser Pistol: Due to beam spread I cannot see police using it as it is essentially like a shot gun with distance and that means collateral damage they do not want. Soldiers may use it, but only for niche situations where they don't care about collateral damage.

Scifi Ionizer Beam Pistol: Police SWAT teams might use it in niche situations. The only collateral damage is eye damage to onlookers of the ionizer beam in action, but sometimes if a situation is desperate enough it may warrant it. Mainly for barricade situations where burning through 20 inches of steel in ten seconds comes in handy. Or situations where you need to end a battle quickly and hostiles are barricaded.

Conclusion: It is pure fantasy for scifi laser or any other DEW weapon to be wielded by common people so long eye damage and beam spread are both part of the package that come with the gun. 

DEW guns are more like a niche weapon used as a last resort, given how dangerous they still are even when I fixed a few issues they would have in real life via scifi make believe.

 

Your thoughts?

 

 

 

Edited November 11, 2024 by Spacescifi

[Nuke]

the problem is power. to cast a steel melting beam, you need steel melting power. and there are laser systems that can do that, but they need to be powered from the wall and will draw a few kw. and its hard to put that much power into a pistol sized object. energy storage that dense is a bomb by definition.  though its probibly not impossible. i can imagine using a backpack full of batteries or a fuel cell connected to a hand unit. but at that point its too unweildly to be called a pistol.