StevenMarkey: that condition sounds quite a bit like a certain hallucegenic that was quite popular in the 60''s.

Zin: I think that a lazer would eventually dissapate, since I don''t think (not sure) that it is possible for a beam of light to be 100% paralell. Maybe 99.999% So it would disperse, plus it would hit little stuff, and be gravitally atraccted to it and pulled around and whanot....

I think it would be worse if Nukes were thrown about in space...That could be quite a problem if a REALLY unluckey ship just happened to be in the worst place at the worst time...

Another thing... wouldn''t fighters be virtually useless? If you''re using lasers, and they travel at the speed of light, you don''t have to lead your target or anything. Just point it at them and shoot. This would get even easier with a computer-targeting system, which our future spaceships are almost guaranteed to have.

Also, in Star Wars, the ''lasers'' aren''t actually lasers. Apparently, they''re charged streams of gas, and this explains why they don''t travel at the speed of light.

------------------------------
Omnipotent_Q
"Poor people are crazy. I''m eccentric."

ARRG. If you''re going to bitch about shite physics, at least know some yourself.

Diffraction means that over a long distance an laser weapon IS going to dissipate. Any light beam spreads out; in fact a tightly focused laser on the order of 1 cm diameter shot from the surface of the earth spreads out to almost 3 km in diameter at the surface of the moon, a mere 800,000 klicks away. As for particle beams, quantum uncertainty means it''s never going to be possible to isolate the particles to an infinite degree of precision, and chaos theory means that over time those particles spread out, reducing the energy density of the beam, which is the important quantity. "Planar" waves aren''t really flat, they just lose energy only at the edges - but that bleed ends up castrating a laser weapon over celestial distances.

Using lasers means practically nothing in terms of point-and-shoot. You see a slightly delayed image of the enemy thanks to the time taken for reflected light to reach you in the first place, and your beam has to cross that distance again (and hence experience that delay again), so a quick fighter at a great distance can dodge your laser by jinking, just like a normal fighter pilot. In addition, since the energy is dissipating over distance, time of exposure is critical to witnessing any effect on the craft. Ergo, you''ve got a job hitting him to any reasonable effect.

ld

Well, yes, I know that light takes time to travel through space, but unless these battles are taking place over huge distances (which is actually pretty likely, space is a pretty open place) then the delay is insignificant. If I remember correctly, light travels at 300,000 km/s. Modern fighters travel at about 3000 km/h, max. (The Mig-25 Foxbat, the fastest one I know of, travels at 3200 km/h.) This works out to 50 km/s. So, even if you''re engaging an enemy fighter at 100 km, the laser would take .003333333 seconds to travel to its target. In this time, the fighter would have moved .01666667 km, or about 17 meters. This is not enough room or time for the fighter to maneuver (additionally, no fighter can pull tactical maneuvers at top speed), and the laser would have to lead the target by a little bit. But remember, this is at 100 km, or 62.5 miles. Fighters could get faster in space, but there''s a limit to how many g-forces a human pilot can handle. So unless these fighters engage from a very far distance, the advantage is lost, so I see these Star Wars-style dogfights as basically impossible.

------------------------------
Omnipotent_Q
"Poor people are crazy. I''m eccentric."

Man, I used to like Star Wars.

Now I think it''s just dumb

Waverider: DON''T LISTEN TO THEM!

:: putting his fingers in his ears :: YADA YADA YADA YADA YADA I''M NOT LISTENING!!!

Isn''t that YODA YODA YODA YODA....

yeah, why, when the super star destroyer in return of the jedi got hit, why did it ''sink''? a small figher and the destruction of the bridge means it suddenly is affected by the gravity of the death star?

What about me? What about Raven?

It ''sinks'' for the same reason that they put all the command personnel in the most obvious area on the ship to attack, and give them a window that can easily be broken. Imperials just can''t design starships.

------------------------------
Omnipotent_Q
"Poor people are crazy. I''m eccentric."

There is sound in space, haven''t you ever seen Star Wars?