www.ditl.org

McAvoy wrote:So... in Star Trek universe weapons use magic unicorn fart dust to power its weapons which explains lack of vapor and low power.

Pretty much. Although I wouldn't call a few hundred terawatts "low power" - it's about twenty times the installed capacity of the entire human race.

IanKennedy wrote:If you are going to do that you may as well be watching Star Wars, that's what their fans do.

It's what some Star Wars fans do. It's also what some Trek fans do.

Captain Seafort wrote:

McAvoy wrote:So... in Star Trek universe weapons use magic unicorn fart dust to power its weapons which explains lack of vapor and low power.

Pretty much. Although I wouldn't call a few hundred terawatts "low power" - it's about twenty times the installed capacity of the entire human race.

The US Navy is aiming to have megawatt lasers within ten to fifteen years. Not going to happen but there is steady and fairly fast pace of increasingly powerful lasers.

As far as choosing and not choosing what figure or SFX shot to use as a figure, it should at least be the most common, the ones that make the most sense etc. Not low ball it or high ball it.

Captain Seafort wrote:

IanKennedy wrote:If you are going to do that you may as well be watching Star Wars, that's what their fans do.

It's what some Star Wars fans do. It's also what some Trek fans do.

Not to put too fine a point on it, in the Trek universe canon is what is filmed. In Wars, it's pretty much any crap anyone writes down.

McAvoy wrote:Uh-huh. Gotcha. So we the people who are viewing from the outside must be literal and not use a dash of common sense when dealing with coming up with figures?

You can use whatever you like to produce whatever numbers you like. Just bear in mind that since there is no universally accepted definition of what constitutes "common sense", all you're really doing is looking at canon and hanging your opinion onto it. The next guy along can hang a completely different opinion on it and have it be just as valid.

And it's not just Star Trek or Star Wars fans who do this. It's "people".

Captain Seafort wrote:Don't forget that you'll need a lot more than a 4PJ DEW shot to equal a 1Mt nuke, given the far lower power.

I had considered that, and it goes into the nifty tech manual compendium.

Tsukiyumi wrote:

Captain Seafort wrote:Don't forget that you'll need a lot more than a 4PJ DEW shot to equal a 1Mt nuke, given the far lower power.

I had considered that, and it goes into the nifty tech manual compendium.

Doesn't it?