Raygun

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This article is about fictional weapons. For other meanings, see Raygun (disambiguation). See Directed-energy weapon for various real weapons which are similar to rayguns.

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Rayguns are a type of directed-energy weapon. They are a classic and widespread feature of science fiction. Types of raygun have various names: ray gun, death ray, beam gun, blaster, laser gun, etc. They supply the general role of guns in the scenarios of many stories.

[edit] History

A very early example is the Heat-Ray featured in H. G. Wells' The War of the Worlds, which was published in 1898. Science fiction as far back as the 1920s emphasized death rays as the weapons of choice. Early science fiction often showed raygun beams making bright light and loud noise like lightning or large electric arcs. When the laser, invented in 1960, became an industrial reality the generic fictional death rays were often renamed "lasers" (see Science fiction weapon). By the late 1960s and 1970s however, the laser's limits as a weapon were evident, and less specific terms such as "phaser" (see Star Trek) or "blaster" (see Star Wars) were used.

[edit] Types

The ray fired is usually stated to be one of:

  • Laser
  • Particle beam:
  • plasma: see also plasma rifle
  • Defined by a word not known in real-world science, e.g. "disruptor".
  • Undefined.
  • Concussion Beam: A generic term often applied to energy weapons when the nature of the weapon is unknown. They are often non-lethal and only temporarily disable an opponent by knocking them down. They are often seen in television cartoons where realistic conventional weaponry is usually disallowed due to restrictions on violence.

The well-known Star Trek phaser fires a particle beam of a fictional subatomic particle called nadions.

See Blaster (Star Wars)#Technology for an unreal technology attempt at describing how a type of raygun works.

Sometimes in science fiction stories, rayguns are used for metal cutting like blowtorches.

In some science fiction, some rayguns have a firing mode that can stun its target instead of killing.

Rayguns under their various names come in various sizes and forms: pistol; two-handed (often called a rifle); mounted on a vehicle; artillery-sized mounted on a spaceship or space base or asteroid or planet. The pistol form is seen most often.

A "beam gun" in anime is an energy weapon which fires a colored beam of light.

"FX-Ray laser" in American science fiction and animation is a humorous name for a raygun that fires a visible beam: FX is the show biz acronym for special effects.

The shapes of some rayguns are influenced by an opinion that they look most effective and weapon-like if they look somewhat like real guns; others, such as this, are not.
The shapes of some rayguns are influenced by an opinion that they look most effective and weapon-like if they look somewhat like real guns; others, such as this, are not.

Rayguns are a great variety of shapes and sizes, according to the imagination of the story writers and movie prop makers. Most pistol rayguns have a conventional pistol grip and trigger, but some (e.g. Star Trek phasers) do not.

Many rayguns do not behave like classical lasers:

  • Often the beam travels at much less than the speed of light. The phasers of the Star Trek television series can be seen to be traveling much slower than a conventional bullet. Star Wars lasers are depicted as brightly colored streaks of light resembling tracer ammunition.
  • The beam can be seen from off its axis, which would not happen in space where there is nothing to be illuminated by the beam.
  • Sometimes, visible barrel recoil. This would only happen if the momentum of the beam is comparable to that of a bullet fired from a gun.
  • Sometimes, the power of the beam completely evaporates a man (equipment and all) who is hit by the beam.

However, some of the above properties are consistent with particle beam weapons.

[edit] Why rayguns are fictional, as far as is generally known

[edit] Some types of rayguns in science fiction


[edit] Real rayguns?

[edit] See also

[edit] Images of rayguns

A typical imaginary raygun

Imaginary raygun, 2 views, with parts labelled

Small artillery sized version of same, in use

[edit] External links