• Question: Why are lasers always portrayed as destructive, usually weapons, in films etc, when actually they're not usually?

    Asked by #nerdyweirdo to Chris on 22 Jun 2015.
    • Photo: Chris Armstrong

      Chris Armstrong answered on 22 Jun 2015:

      Well lasers can be incredibly destructive, for example they punch holes in the targets that we fire shoot without too much difficulty. Admittedly they are 0.1mm thick foils rather than the side of a battleship…

      The Americans have a laser capable of melting a truck, so there definitely is destructive power their.

      They just aren’t weapons… yet.
      It won’t be that long before they are used in warfare, probably not by ground troops as high powered lasers required to do damage are bulky machines that require a lot of power. But films embrace the almost possible and run with it.

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