NationStates Jolt Archive

OOC: Im just curious if its possible to fire a laser underwater and if so how feasible is it to do so? Im trying to develop a new anti shipping/submarine weapon that isn't dependant on noisy torpedos.

Water refracts light, a laser wouldn't work underwater.

If the water was perfectly still, yes, it would. It would be like shining it through a glass block. If you shone the laser while submerged, it wouldn't defract, since diffraction happens when transferring from one medium to another - ie, air to water. So yes, a laser underwater would work.

A laser would work just fine. You just wouldn't be able to do anything useful with it, as the beam would diffuse/absorb too quickly. Even in perfectly still water, you've only got an effective range of a few hundred meters, assuming you choose the frequencies that water absorbs least.

Possible, yes. Useful, no.

What about some sort of sonic weapon?

sound waves dissapate in water.

A laser would work just fine. You just wouldn't be able to do anything useful with it, as the beam would diffuse/absorb too quickly. Even in perfectly still water, you've only got an effective range of a few hundred meters, assuming you choose the frequencies that water absorbs least.

Possible, yes. Useful, no.

so at say 50-100 yards would it be effective against a ships underside?

sound waves dissapate in water.On the contrary, sound waves travel much farther underwater than in air. Sperm whales are capable of generating a powerful enough boom to temporarily stun squid for easy eating. Methinks an artificial sonic laser apparatus would be quite effective.

so at say 50-100 yards would it be effective against a ships underside?Possibly, but probably not. You'd run into the problem of water being a non-compressible medium.

It would probbly overload the ships sonar.

Yes, but it would require very high amounts of energy, since water has a much higher density than gas(air). It's similar to how a car's headlights get in really thick fog -- the light from them just spreads out through the moisture. The laser would have the same problem. Plus . . . you also have the problem that the water would absorb most of the energy from your laser.

I'm prolly wrong on this . . . my physics teacher is incompetent . . .

[This is actually a major restriction on my 'casters, although that's magitech that has to obey the laws of thermodynamics]

I'd reccomend that you stick with regular torpedoes . . . especially since there's some nifty tech available [search online] that makes torpedoes go at very high speeds, making them almost impossible to dodge . . .

Sonic weapons would work underwater, if you could direct them so that they would cause damage to specific targets, and not to everything in the area . . .

If the intensity of lasers weaken in the atmosphere, you can forget about it being used underwater. Lasers are most suitably used in outer space.

Yes, a laser can and will work underwater. However it's gonna need a hegnormous energy supply and it'll be worth nill. A sonic machine will work much better however the energy thing is still revelent. But there's always more low tech things like mines and topedoes. Also you can use something cool, but very energy efficient like magnetism. If you rig a device to release specific frequency magna pulses you can cause a great deal of damage while using only half of what you would need for a laser or sonic thingy. I can't really explain it right now, but if you remind me by telegram later I'll try. :)

You're a moron...