Blaster speed

[Rusty]

I thought this might come in handy. Adam Savage of the Mythbusters went ahead and calculated the speed of blaster bolts as seen in the movies, because his job is so much more awesome than ours. Comes out to about 130 miles per hour, or 58 m/s.

Video here https://youtu.be/ukokXOTFabM, because I haven't figured out how to embed them yet.

 

[Orphen]

The problem with those calculations, as I've told a couple of other people, and one of the problems with myth-busters as a whole (being kinda iffy a lot of the time. especially with their conclusions. Admittedly, if enough people call them out on something they tend to revise.) is that the speed of the blasters as seen in the movie are a product of the films special effects and the fact that we, as the audience, need to be able to percieve their motion. The red rays of light that flash from a blaster rifle in the movies were kindof an importand factor in showing that they were using laser weapons... we needed to see the beam. Seems simple enough.

While beams like the super-lasers like the deathstar, were able to go from a space station to a planet within a couple of seconds, as well as long range blasters like when you see the lasers on hoth. they're travelling a lot faster.

Like...

58mp/s isn't just slower than a bullet. Which hand-gun shots go at about 2-300 meters per second. Muskets had a muzzle velocity of about 120mp/s and modern rifles have a muzzle velocity of about 1200mp/s

Gas blow-back airsoft guns can have 150mp/s firing speeds, and they're gas propelled... gas propelled... blaster gas...

A bow and arrow (composite) fires at about 75 meters per second

the world record cricket speed bowler throw is 44.8 meters per second.

I think its kindof safe to say that the speed seen in the earlier trilogy was more of a film convention / production limitation than meant to be a scientific representation of the star-wars technology. Cos, if something really traveled that fast... hitting any kind of moving target would be next to impossible. They would almost never be used in a military capacity.

And 58mp/s... people 'almost' may as well throw grenades... they'd be nearing as fast with a trained speed bowl, and more damaging.

 

[Ellie Mors]

The problem with those calculations, as I've told a couple of other people, and one of the problems with myth-busters as a whole (being kinda iffy a lot of the time. especially with their conclusions. Admittedly, if enough people call them out on something they tend to revise.) is that the speed of the blasters as seen in the movie are a product of the films special effects and the fact that we, as the audience, need to be able to percieve their motion. The red rays of light that flash from a blaster rifle in the movies were kindof an importand factor in showing that they were using laser weapons... we needed to see the beam. Seems simple enough.

While beams like the super-lasers like the deathstar, were able to go from a space station to a planet within a couple of seconds, as well as long range blasters like when you see the lasers on hoth. they're travelling a lot faster.

Like...

58mp/s isn't just slower than a bullet. Which hand-gun shots go at about 2-300 meters per second. Muskets had a muzzle velocity of about 120mp/s and modern rifles have a muzzle velocity of about 1200mp/s

Gas blow-back airsoft guns can have 150mp/s firing speeds, and they're gas propelled... gas propelled... blaster gas...

A bow and arrow (composite) fires at about 75 meters per second

the world record cricket speed bowler throw is 44.8 meters per second.

I think its kindof safe to say that the speed seen in the earlier trilogy was more of a film convention / production limitation than meant to be a scientific representation of the star-wars technology. Cos, if something really traveled that fast... hitting any kind of moving target would be next to impossible. They would almost never be used in a military capacity.

And 58mp/s... people 'almost' may as well throw grenades... they'd be nearing as fast with a trained speed bowl, and more damaging.

A blaster is not a laser, and should not be confused with such. They are super-heated plasma bolts that are fired from a barrel, made from certain gases of various qualities. They are visible to the naked eye, and the color is dependent on the type of gas and its quality. They are not light-based weaponry.

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Blaster

They are not also the fastest form of weapon, simply the most penetrating. A slugthrower will be able to travel at thousands of meters per second, whereas a blaster will trail behind it and fade out before it even reaches a kilometer in distance.

(For example, see blaster pistols' maximum range)

A regular slugthrower pistol will have far greater "maximum" ranges because the projectile will continue to move due to velocity, and the fact that it isn't made of gas, with a downward-sloped trajectory until it collides with either the ground or another target/obstacle.

Of course, the above noted blaster speed is indeed a bit ridiculous.

 

[Rusty]

It's simply the observed speed from the movies. Say what you want about them not getting a large enough sample size to draw anything conclusive, they rarely have trouble with math.

It's also worth noting that the above speed is probably what most people have in their heads as they imagine blaster bolts in a practical application. It's one thing to know intellectually that blaster bolts travel more quickly, it's quite another to picture it in your head as you're triple backflipping away from a squad of angry droidekas.

 

[Orphen]

[member="Lily Kirsche Kuhn"]

I didn't say that a blaster was a laser, but super lasers like the deathstar still fired from hundreds of turbo-laser tubes, Turbo-lasers.... as far as i know are still a blaster weapon (just checked... they are >.>) So then it would be logical to say that the electromagnetically charged plasma bolt that it fires, as it comes from a gas, would move as fast as gas can propel an object... so we should be comparing blasters to gas powered carbines would be my thought.

 

[Rusty]

If I remember correctly, the acceleration is at least partly due to electromagnetism. It maintains the bolt's coherence, but also propels it.

 

[Vora Kaar]

 

[Rafeesh]

Just wanted to point out that the Death Star is not a lot of turbolasers as said here:

"Unlike turbolasers, it pulled energy from a massive hypermatter core, converting the energy present in hyperspace into highly unstable particles that were tremendously destructive in normal space."
From http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Superlaserunder Operation

*scuttles back into corner*

[member="Orphen"]

 

[Orphen]

Just wanted to point out that the Death Star is not a lot of turbolasers as said here:

"Unlike turbolasers, it pulled energy from a massive hypermatter core, converting the energy present in hyperspace into highly unstable particles that were tremendously destructive in normal space."
From http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Superlaserunder Operation

*scuttles back into corner*

[member="Orphen"]

huh, i sware somewhere i read the deathstar thing as saying turbolaser tubes when they split into like 64...

oh well

 

[Ellie Mors]

[member="Orphen"]
They fire 64 proton beams which are then fed into 8 tributaries and then are combined into one single superlaser.

 

[Kurayami Bloodborn]

A minor point but one i feel should be mentioned, is that the blaster isn't relying on speed to do damage to the target. It's unstable gas particles packed together by electromagnetism. When you get hit by that, even in good armor you are dealing with not only the heat of the explosion but also the concussive force. Granted this is usually within a small area of effect especially for a blaster rifle or pistol, but still enough to do rather nasty things, especially to a soft target.

Also consider that what they were testing was in an atmosphere where the bolt meets resistance and has to push through, while a slug does have to do the same it is designed for that very purpose, allowing for greater velocity and range. Once that electromagnetic shell wears off, blaster bolt goes away. So to maximize range and destructive potential of the bolt you wouldn't WANT it to travel too fast so that it has a better chance of reaching and incapacitating/killing the target. In space range and speed are greatly magnified due to not having to push as much matter out of the way.

At least that is how I understand it based on the episode and the Wookie article that was linked.

 

[The Traveler]

It's simply the observed speed from the movies. Say what you want about them not getting a large enough sample size to draw anything conclusive, they rarely have trouble with math.

It's also worth noting that the above speed is probably what most people have in their heads as they imagine blaster bolts in a practical application. It's one thing to know intellectually that blaster bolts travel more quickly, it's quite another to picture it in your head as you're triple backflipping away from a squad of angry droidekas.

Considering the observed speed is the actually speed, no one went down before the bolt hit. Its always at impact, which means the speed is exactly what you see. The Bolt is slow, far slower then a ballistic projectile and it disipates. It doesn't have intertia to keep it going, it wont continue to tumble when it hits the ground.

So quite literally what you see is what you get, you probably aren't going to step out of the way of one and the odds of even the mighty jedi with their space magicks stopping or deflecting something going 900 meters per second would be beyond even te most logical point of absurd. But hey its opinion and your entitled to yours, neither of us can prove to be right or wrong here.

 

[Matreya]

[member="The Traveler"]
There are Canon examples of Jedi blocking slugthrower shots...

 

[Ellie Mors]

So quite literally what you see is what you get, you probably aren't going to step out of the way of one and the odds of even the mighty jedi with their space magicks stopping or deflecting something going 900 meters per second would be beyond even te most logical point of absurd. But hey its opinion and your entitled to yours, neither of us can prove to be right or wrong here.

Force users utilize precognition to avoid or deflect/block projectiles by knowing they are coming before they arrive and acting before that happens.

The speed which the Mythbusters measured from the original trilogy varies from movie to move depending on the scene, as no shot made in any scene from any movie was timed to be equal in the length of time it takes a blaster round to reach any given area proportionately to any other scene. The observed speed seen in the movies is because of visual effects, as the special effects director of each movie thought would best make the movie look best.

 

[Vora Kaar]

Um.... I think the OG poster of this thread was just trying to point out something cool for us to look at?

Lol, but I am loving reading these responses and how people know so much more star wars than I do. *cus now I don't look like a complete nerd*

 

[Kurayami Bloodborn]

@Windstrider

I have wanted to know how EVERYTHING in Star Wars works, or try to find at least a believable explanation for such things since I was introduced to it going on 22 years ago. Yea I'm a massive nerd...