Plasma Weapons

[rat_bastard]

plasma does full damage to glitter boys. it is very different than lasers.

[Giant2005]

Plasma is a heat based attack, lasers are an energy based attack.

Plasma does full damage to a GB.

[glitterboy2098]

a laser, essentually, is focused light. there are some other things involved, in a laser, but it is basically the same kinds of photons given off by the sun, by a lightbulb, ect. lasers just make a beam out of it. lasers do most of their damage through burning.

plasma is superheated gas. so hot it glows. a plasma weapon shoots streams or globs of this superhot gas at a target. plasma damage is through heat, as the superhot gas melts and vaporises the target.

a glitterboys armor works by reflecting light. a laser is composed of light and does damage through the light hitting stuff. so glitterboy chrome weakens a laser by reflecting part of it away. (try pointing a flashlight at a mirror. the mirror is lit up, but the light alos bounces off to light up somewhere else. same idea.)

plasma is not light, it is a gas. so the armor has nothing to reflect. thus plasma does its full damage.

[Mouser13]

I will 4th that plasma does full damage to glitterboy

[DhAkael]

Plasma = VERY HOT GAS! Think solar-surface hot (Yeah I know that plasma globes aren't hot at all, but work with me here people). Only stopped by VERY dense and high effcient heat reflecting or absorbing materials; like carbon, beryllium...or by powerful magnetic fields.

Lasers = finely focussed flashlight beam...measured in kilo or mega-watts / Joules per second out put (also star-surface hot, but different source and application). ANY finely polished mirror surface can refract up to 90% of a lasers' energy...except X-ray lasers (but again, we won't go into that territory).

So short answer long; what the hell are they teaching in science classes now a days? In GRADE 3 I had a basic concept of Laser Vs. Plasma. By Grade 6 I knew different natural occuring plasma types (Ball lightning, aurora borealis, solar prominances).

Tell these players to get a clue.
Or go to a REAL school, whatever comes first.

[DhAkael]

Plasma = VERY HOT GAS! Think solar-surface hot (Yeah I know that plasma globes aren't hot at all, but work with me here people). Only stopped by VERY dense and high effcient heat reflecting or absorbing materials; like carbon, beryllium...or by powerful magnetic fields.

Lasers = finely focussed flashlight beam...measured in kilo or mega-watts / Joules per second out put (also star-surface hot, but different source and application). ANY finely polished mirror surface can refract up to 90% of a lasers' energy...except X-ray lasers (but again, we won't go into that territory).

So short answer long; what the hell are they teaching in science classes now a days? In GRADE 3 I had a basic concept of Laser Vs. Plasma. By Grade 6 I knew different natural occuring plasma types (Ball lightning, aurora borealis, solar prominances).

Tell these players to get a clue.
Or go to a REAL school, whatever comes first.

Think your being a bit harsh there mate.

Not everyone has the same intrest-concentration, after all those more intrested in biology will think plasma refers to the liquid that transports haemogoblins around; not super-heated ionized gas.

It's basic science education in Grade 6 in Ontario. and we have the WORST public education in all Canada. No..not harsh at all dude.

[DhAkael]

Plasma = VERY HOT GAS! Think solar-surface hot (Yeah I know that plasma globes aren't hot at all, but work with me here people). Only stopped by VERY dense and high effcient heat reflecting or absorbing materials; like carbon, beryllium...or by powerful magnetic fields.

Lasers = finely focussed flashlight beam...measured in kilo or mega-watts / Joules per second out put (also star-surface hot, but different source and application). ANY finely polished mirror surface can refract up to 90% of a lasers' energy...except X-ray lasers (but again, we won't go into that territory).

So short answer long; what the hell are they teaching in science classes now a days? In GRADE 3 I had a basic concept of Laser Vs. Plasma. By Grade 6 I knew different natural occuring plasma types (Ball lightning, aurora borealis, solar prominances).

Tell these players to get a clue.
Or go to a REAL school, whatever comes first.

Think your being a bit harsh there mate.

Not everyone has the same intrest-concentration, after all those more intrested in biology will think plasma refers to the liquid that transports haemogoblins around; not super-heated ionized gas.

It's basic science education in Grade 6 in Ontario. and we have the WORST public education in all Canada. No..not harsh at all dude.

Ah but not everyone is from Canada, it's way to cold

Try saying that durring summer time.

[DhAkael]

I can & will. Your summer = our winter. me in southern hemisphere 15 degress off the equator.

Ow!

[Library Ogre]

Try saying that durring summer time.

I can & will. Your summer = our winter. me in southern hemisphere 15 degress off the equator.

How about your summer = our winter... not because I'm in another hemisphere, but because I regularly go swimming on Christmas Day.

[Rallan]

I'm gonna have to be pedantic here.

Plasma is not just "superheated gas". It's an entirely different physical state of matter, and one that's more highly energized than gas. When you heat stuff to the stage where it becomes a plasma, you've put so much energy into it that all molecular bonds have broken down, and the free atoms floating around have had some or all of their outermost shell of electrons stripped away. Basically what you've got is a superheated sea of ionized atoms and free electrons, and it's a very angry state of matter indeed. It's electrically conductive, chemically reactive as all get-out, has momentum if its moving at high speeds because it is indeed just ordinary matter, and of course is as hot as buggery.

But yeah, apart from that minor correction, everyone's right on the money about how it's completely different from lasers. Lasers are coherent, incredibly concentrated beams of light. Plasma is what happens when you cook matter so hot that it doesn't just melt into a liquid or boil into a gas, it goes right through gas and into the next stage after that.

[DhAkael]

I'm gonna have to be pedantic here.

Plasma is not just "superheated gas". It's an entirely different physical state of matter, and one that's more highly energized than gas. When you heat stuff to the stage where it becomes a plasma, you've put so much energy into it that all molecular bonds have broken down, and the free atoms floating around have had some or all of their outermost shell of electrons stripped away. Basically what you've got is a superheated sea of ionized atoms and free electrons, and it's a very angry state of matter indeed. It's electrically conductive, chemically reactive as all get-out, has momentum if its moving at high speeds because it is indeed just ordinary matter, and of course is as hot as buggery.

But yeah, apart from that minor correction, everyone's right on the money about how it's completely different from lasers. Lasers are coherent, incredibly concentrated beams of light. Plasma is what happens when you cook matter so hot that it doesn't just melt into a liquid or boil into a gas, it goes right through gas and into the next stage after that.

QFT =Quoted For Truth = the "other meaning"

[Phadeout]

And just in case you/your players are wondering:

Ion: Electricity damage
Particle Beam: Energy Damage (debatable)