Phasers are “nearly instantaneous”, which is slow compared to light speed, but means there’s maybe one video frame where the phaser has been fired and it hasn’t yet hit.
In Star Wars, the “laser” cannons are slow enough that you can see individual bursts flying through the air at once. To me, that suggests it’s even slower than 2020s bullet speeds.
Anyhow, my money is always on the Star Trek ships. The Star Wars universe still seems to use human aiming most of the time, where the Star Trek universe uses computer targeting and target locks. It’s basically 1950s tech but with “lasers” vs 2020s tech but with “phasers”.
You forget that bullets aren’t illuminated unless they’re tracer rounds. If you watch an IRL tracer round at night it looks a lot like the lasers from turbo laser cannons.
I’m not arguing against the falcon getting destroyed I’m just saying the turbo lasers on a starship are moving much faster than it seems simply because they’re illuminated.
Bullets are small and don’t give off any light. Those are pretty much the only reason you can’t see them moving. It’s not instant you just can’t see it.
I was specifically thinking about tracers when I was saying that turbo lasers seem slower than bullets. Look at this footage and say that it seems slower than turbo lasers:
Compare that to the ship-to-ship “turbo lasers” from the clip I shared, it seems very similar. It’s hard to compare because you’d need to look at things of the same scale from the same distance, but it seems comparable to me.
The thing about blaster bolts in the OT is that they usually are on screen for roughly the same number of frames, no matter the shot. So in close in fights, they can be pretty slow, for long shots, especially the chase of the Tantive IV, they are incredibly fast.
A phaser beam is made up of nadion particles, which to my eyes seems to move through space at about the same speed as a Star Wars laser bolt.
I think a more fair fight would be a Danube runabout vs. the Falcon, but my money is still on the Starfleet ship.
In Star Trek, photon torpedoes seem to go about as fast as “laser” cannons in Star Wars:
https://youtu.be/j2DEo305CXk?t=35
Phasers are “nearly instantaneous”, which is slow compared to light speed, but means there’s maybe one video frame where the phaser has been fired and it hasn’t yet hit.
https://youtu.be/j2DEo305CXk?t=346
In Star Wars, the “laser” cannons are slow enough that you can see individual bursts flying through the air at once. To me, that suggests it’s even slower than 2020s bullet speeds.
https://youtu.be/LVHnyqhl3Bk?t=28
Anyhow, my money is always on the Star Trek ships. The Star Wars universe still seems to use human aiming most of the time, where the Star Trek universe uses computer targeting and target locks. It’s basically 1950s tech but with “lasers” vs 2020s tech but with “phasers”.
You forget that bullets aren’t illuminated unless they’re tracer rounds. If you watch an IRL tracer round at night it looks a lot like the lasers from turbo laser cannons.
I’m not arguing against the falcon getting destroyed I’m just saying the turbo lasers on a starship are moving much faster than it seems simply because they’re illuminated.
Bullets are small and don’t give off any light. Those are pretty much the only reason you can’t see them moving. It’s not instant you just can’t see it.
I was specifically thinking about tracers when I was saying that turbo lasers seem slower than bullets. Look at this footage and say that it seems slower than turbo lasers:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7LZuNUqZ4TE
Compare that to the ship-to-ship “turbo lasers” from the clip I shared, it seems very similar. It’s hard to compare because you’d need to look at things of the same scale from the same distance, but it seems comparable to me.
The thing about blaster bolts in the OT is that they usually are on screen for roughly the same number of frames, no matter the shot. So in close in fights, they can be pretty slow, for long shots, especially the chase of the Tantive IV, they are incredibly fast.