I know each blaster is different, some fire ionized plasma others concentrated particle beams? Particle accelerated beams would obviously travel at C or faster, but there is an abundance of visual evidence clearly demonstrating that blasters don't travel anywhere near C?

Is there any official theory or shared consensus for this fictional anomaly?

Not even a particle beam could travel faster than light.

Hell, firing the thing would launch you back as far as it could fire.

The reason why blaster weapon fire seems to travel slower than a bullet, is so we can see all the pretty colours, and Jedi don't look like hyperactive amphetamine junkies as they deflect all that weapons fire.

Just think of them travelling as fast as a bullet.

I know each blaster is different, some fire ionized plasma others concentrated particle beams? Particle accelerated beams would obviously travel at C or faster, but there is an abundance of visual evidence clearly demonstrating that blasters don't travel anywhere near C?

 

Is there any official theory or shared consensus for this fictional anomaly?

They are plasma weapons, plasma is really just is just a visual effect/state of heat/energy ... which are capable of moving any where from and blink of an eye lighting flash to a slow moving fire (lightning and fire both being plasma themselves).

As for why Star Wars plasma weapons, move at the specific speed the do, IDK.

Not even a particle beam could travel faster than light.

Hell, firing the thing would launch you back as far as it could fire.

 

 

The reason why blaster weapon fire seems to travel slower than a bullet, is so we can see all the pretty colours, and Jedi don't look like hyperactive amphetamine junkies as they deflect all that weapons fire.

Just think of them travelling as fast as a bullet.

So maybe the speed is reduced to reduce recoil?

They travel really fast, until they hit you in the knee.

I used to be a Captain like you, until I took a blaster bolt to the knee....

Still, I doubt anyone who replied to this thread could deflect the blaster bolts as seen in the movies/games. Maybe 1 or two, but so could Luke before he got his force training. Let's just say they actually travel at the speed shown. They are still quite effective. Especially in numbers. If you notice in the movies, or in games even the blaster rifles are capable of impressive destruction. More so than a bullet.

If you look at the larger blaster cannons you will see they are also quite effective. Perhaps they have armor piercing capability. More so than any conventional projectile.

Also, you see in the movie Ewoks defeated stormtrooper armor with stones. Just because an armor has energy absorbing properties, does not mean it is also suited for taking kinetic damage. In the time of the OT they had moved away from material weapons like vibroswords. In SWTOR's era you still see use of vibroswords, and other material weapons. Thus, the armor seen in the time reflects that more.

Still, I doubt anyone who replied to this thread could deflect the blaster bolts as seen in the movies/games. Maybe 1 or two, but so could Luke before he got his force training. Let's just say they actually travel at the speed shown. They are still quite effective. Especially in numbers. If you notice in the movies, or in games even the blaster rifles are capable of impressive destruction. More so than a bullet.

 

If you look at the larger blaster cannons you will see they are also quite effective. Perhaps they have armor piercing capability. More so than any conventional projectile.

 

Also, you see in the movie Ewoks defeated stormtrooper armor with stones. Just because an armor has energy absorbing properties, does not mean it is also suited for taking kinetic damage. In the time of the OT they had moved away from material weapons like vibroswords. In SWTOR's era you still see use of vibroswords, and other material weapons. Thus, the armor seen in the time reflects that more.

Not unless you were amazing at batting a baseball

Force users have precognition, but, if travelling at C then the movies should not have shown blasters firing, then Jedi moving lightsaber into place, then deflecting it, Jedi should of moved the saber before the shot fired. So blaster bolts have to be moving at speeds as shown in the movies. I don't even think that GL could comment on this.

vibro knives are still standard issue and still used. no matter how technological we become, nothing will replace and good combat/survival knife.

except maybe a lightsaber. . .

but anyway, OP, i honestly dont think George Lucas was thinking about how fast they move when he put lasers in the movie. it just looks more futuristic.

BUT if you really want me to delve into my inner geekdom:

theyd have to have some type of ballistic qualities. when jango did a death from above on obi wan on camino, those blaster bolts actually exploded on the ground around him. ALSO in ANH, when leia and luke were swinging from the gap in the death star, spent shell casings were actually being ejected from the standard issue E-11 rifles.

jut food for thought

Not unless you were amazing at batting a baseball

 

Force users have precognition, but, if travelling at C then the movies should not have shown blasters firing, then Jedi moving lightsaber into place, then deflecting it, Jedi should of moved the saber before the shot fired. So blaster bolts have to be moving at speeds as shown in the movies. I don't even think that GL could comment on this.

This makes perfect sense. If the blaster were traveling at the speed of light, then the force user must have his light saber in place before the blaster is even fired, or move faster than the speed of light which is impossible. It's more likely that if the bolts are traveling at the speed of light then first theory is more likely. Which is possible, even within science. Since it has been proven that the brain actually sends nerve signals faster than the speed of light.

If a piece of matter is static in space, then it is moving at the max speed of time. If that piece of matter begins to move in any direction it must divert some speed from traveling in time to traveling in space.

That being said, I don't think this is the case, since if you notice in the films other events are happening in real time while the said blaster bolts are deflected.

If you notice in the films sometimes the light saber is already in position (most of the time), and other times it is deflected on reaction. So it's almost safe to say that blasters (as written in StarWars) travel at the speed depicted.

EDIT:

The force guides them before the actual event. Hence force sensitive precognition. If you really want to get into the likeliness of that situation: it depends on the will of the force, and how predictable the shot/attack is of the person behind it. That is why StarWars is science-fiction.

If I may defend Revan, and say that is what made him a gifted force-sensitive is that he was unpredictable within the force, and hence his combatants simply could not read him. This along with him using the imbalances of the dark side made for a fierce duelist.

Still, I could argue that the Exile is out of his league entirely. The light side of the force at it's most natural state is the fabric of the force, indeed.

vibro knives are still standard issue and still used. no matter how technological we become, nothing will replace and good combat/survival knife.

 

except maybe a lightsaber. . .

 

but anyway, OP, i honestly dont think George Lucas was thinking about how fast they move when he put lasers in the movie. it just looks more futuristic.

 

BUT if you really want me to delve into my inner geekdom:

 

theyd have to have some type of ballistic qualities. when jango did a death from above on obi wan on camino, those blaster bolts actually exploded on the ground around him. ALSO in ANH, when leia and luke were swinging from the gap in the death star, spent shell casings were actually being ejected from the standard issue E-11 rifles.

 

jut food for thought

Well, there are actual ballistic projectile weapons in Star Wars. Scatterguns, Imperial Repeater rifles, capital ship grade Mass Drivers, etc.

As for blasters, its a particle beam/burst. The power cell excites Tibanna Gas into a high energy plasma which is then compressed and accelerated. In the EU and even in the movies, they are shown not to have much in the way of kinetic force until you get into the anti-material range like E-Webs. The Chiss's 'maser' weapons are depicted as having several times the kinetic force behind them relative to comparable blaster weapons.

If you're talking about ship mounted 'laser' cannons, they're just scaled up blaster cannons. Turbolasers and their heavy and long-range derivatives are simply scaled-up/more powerful versions of regular Turbolasers.

None of those travel at actual light-speed, because none of them are truly lasers.

I'm not even going to touch Ion Cannons. They possibly make the least sense out of the Star Wars weapons.

Well, there are actual ballistic projectile weapons in Star Wars. Scatterguns, Imperial Repeater rifles, capital ship grade Mass Drivers, etc.

 

As for blasters, its a particle beam/burst. The power cell excites Tibanna Gas into a high energy plasma which is then compressed and accelerated. In the EU and even in the movies, they are shown not to have much in the way of kinetic force until you get into the anti-material range like E-Webs. The Chiss's 'maser' weapons are depicted as having several times the kinetic force behind them relative to comparable blaster weapons.

 

If you're talking about ship mounted 'laser' cannons, they're just scaled up blaster cannons. Turbolasers and their heavy and long-range derivatives are simply scaled-up/more powerful versions of regular Turbolasers.

 

None of those travel at actual light-speed, because none of them are truly lasers.

 

I'm not even going to touch Ion Cannons. They possibly make the least sense out of the Star Wars weapons.

ok cool story. so, why was jango's westar-34's exploding? and the spent shell casings on the e-11's?

and dont tell me the shell casings were just hte props, if GL wanted to digitally remove them he wouldve by now, the shell casings are canon.

ok cool story. so, why was jango's westar-34's exploding? and the spent shell casings on the e-11's?

 

and dont tell me the shell casings were just hte props, if GL wanted to digitally remove them he wouldve by now, the shell casings are canon.

1)For the same reason Obi-Wan managed to somehow avoid being singed by two point-blank explosions during that fight. Theatrics. Otherwise, I'd say its because of the landing pad structural material super-heating and igniting/exploding.

2) Casing, singular. From what I watched, there was exactly 1 casing shown, despite all the firing done by everyone. Why is it still in there? Who knows, probably the same reason there is a Stormtrooper in that same movie banging his head into a door. It is simply a little quirk that's not worth taking out. Movies are full of them.

ok cool story. so, why was jango's westar-34's exploding? and the spent shell casings on the e-11's?

 

and dont tell me the shell casings were just hte props, if GL wanted to digitally remove them he wouldve by now, the shell casings are canon.

They're not canon, they just aren't high on Lucas' list of "what to change/add for the next release/update" of the originals.

They're not like the cable running along Obi-Wan's arm to his Lightsaber that powered the rotating "blade" in the first film.

Otherwise, I'd say its because of the landing pad structural material super-heating and igniting/exploding.

True. . . hmm, never thought of that. .. .

2) Casing, singular. From what I watched, there was exactly 1 casing shown, despite all the

there were three, once when luke shot and twice when leia was shooting.

They're not canon, they just aren't high on Lucas' list of "what to change/add for the next release/update" of the originals.

so.. .. . you have access to George Lucas' priority/to-do list? interesting. . . .

no i think you are mistaken.

ok cool story. so, why was jango's westar-34's exploding? and the spent shell casings on the e-11's?

 

and dont tell me the shell casings were just hte props, if GL wanted to digitally remove them he wouldve by now, the shell casings are canon.

There are slug thrower pistols as used by Jix to punch through personal ray shields. Other weapons use lased rounds. Projectiles propelled by superheated plasma. Disruptors in Star Wars are actually lased projectile weapons. Now, as to Blasters, they use energy cartridges.

This site intended to answer some of those questions:

There is no sure answer in terms of real life science; so far we can only place constraints on the nature of the beam by making careful observations about the filmed behaviour. The shots create light which is emitted sideways, otherwise the bolts would not be seen. The visible bolts appear to travel at various velocities, which usually appear to be slower than the speed of light. However there is an invisible component of the beam which often propagates far ahead of the visible bolt. The invisible forerunner is probably an aspect of the fundamental beam itself, and the luminosity of the bolt is a side-effect. The forerunner beam is known to damage targets before the visible bolts arrive, and this component of the shot may actually propagate at lightspeed.

This is an interesting topic, and as far as I know weapons known as Blaster-Rifles, Blaster-Pistols and even some of the heavier equipment like the Blaster-Cannons on the ships utilize some form of pressurized, refined gas that envelops a solid 'bolt'-like projectile in plasma and sends it flying. I suppose it depends on the type of weapon, but I'm pretty sure that most Blaster bolts travel at speeds faster than the eye could see. They may only show them in the movies (and games, apparently) because it'd look more boring if you didn't see the projectile, and lazers are always cool to look at. Back when Star Wars first came out people didn't think on this as much and they did for example name the Turbo-Laser cannon even though it actually shoots plasma-encased bolts, Lightsaber was Lasersword etcetera.

When it comes to combat, I'd like to know how far a blaster bolt travels. If it's indeed as the lore says, would the bolt vaporize after being cooled down after a while or, if in space would it just keep going like a standard object propelled forwards in the vacuum?

For science!

This is an interesting topic, and as far as I know weapons known as Blaster-Rifles, Blaster-Pistols and even some of the heavier equipment like the Blaster-Cannons on the ships utilize some form of pressurized, refined gas that envelops a solid 'bolt'-like projectile in plasma and sends it flying. I suppose it depends on the type of weapon, but I'm pretty sure that most Blaster bolts travel at speeds faster than the eye could see. They may only show them in the movies (and games, apparently) because it'd look more boring if you didn't see the projectile, and lazers are always cool to look at. Back when Star Wars first came out people didn't think on this as much and they did for example name the Turbo-Laser cannon even though it actually shoots plasma-encased bolts, Lightsaber was Lasersword etcetera.

 

When it comes to combat, I'd like to know how far a blaster bolt travels. If it's indeed as the lore says, would the bolt vaporize after being cooled down after a while or, if in space would it just keep going like a standard object propelled forwards in the vacuum?

 

For science!

It probably travels until it hits something, at least blaster wise due to the tibanna gas being able to produce 4X the energy output. As for space, it probably just vaporizes after a while if it keeps going.

Not even a particle beam could travel faster than light.

Hell, firing the thing would launch you back as far as it could fire.

No, Force = Mass * Velocity so it wouldn't launch you back as far as it could fire unless the projectile had the same mass as the firer. If it's firing energy there is no mass and therefore no recoil. It's the same reason turning on a flashlight doesn't launch you backward across the room because it does send photons out at the speed of light.

Clearly, blaster bolts don't travel anywhere near c since we can see them.

No, Force = Mass * Velocity

WHOA WHOA WHOA! ok, this is getting deep, im going to exit the room now. . .

Clearly, blaster bolts don't travel anywhere near c since we can see them.

Everything you said before that was solid, but you can see visible-spectrum lasers even though they go at exactly c. I realize that in a vacuum, with no particles to reflect any photons back at you, you wouldn't be able to see it. Just that, as a litmus test ... wow, I'm being super-pedantic. Gonna stop now before I get into weird thought experiments about general relativity, and what happens if a station wagon going at the speed of light turns on its headlights.