this post was submitted on 03 Sep 2024
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Science Fiction

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How could a disruptor weapon feasibly work? (lemmy.world)
submitted 2 months ago by Tattorack@lemmy.world to c/sciencefiction@lemmy.world
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First a definition for this question, because there are many kinds of sci-fi out there and they sometimes liberally use cool sounding words without explaining them:

A disruptor is a kind of weapon that weakens, or "disrupts", either material bonds (breaking a material into molecules), molecular bonds (breaking a molecule into atoms), or atomic bonds (breaking an atomic nucleus into protons, netrons, and free electrons. Almost like instantly turning into plasma).

Temperature can do these things, but the idea behind a disruptor, specifically, is that it happens through some kind of catalyst, rather than brute-forcing with insane amounts of heat.

Would such a weapon physically be possible (even if we don't know how to make them just yet)?

How would a target realistically behave when hit by a disruptor?

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[–] icerunner_origin@startrek.website 4 points 2 months ago (1 children)

As an aside, the 'ever trustworthy' Google AI suggests, 'completely ionizing a human body would require an energy output similar to a very small nuclear explosion'.

[–] AbouBenAdhem@lemmy.world 6 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

I mean, every process requires an energy output similar to a very small nuclear explosion, for some definition of “very small”.

[–] icerunner_origin@startrek.website 1 points 2 months ago

I'm going to use this next time my wife complains about my noisy farts.