# Sci-Fi weapons with BAD design flaws **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 30, 2017, 7:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sci-fi-weapons-with-bad-design-flaws/778573 "2017-01-30T07:18:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 11
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2017, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sci-fi-weapons-with-bad-design-flaws/778573/201 "2017-02-21T23:45:59Z")
The “Lost in Space” Robot (B9)'s claws could have used a bit more directional accuracy when shooting out electricity; seems to just cover everything in the immediate vicinity. And the NOISE! ---
**Author:** ![lazybratsche](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ba8739/32.png) [@lazybratsche](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lazybratsche)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2017, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sci-fi-weapons-with-bad-design-flaws/778573/202 "2017-02-22T00:56:21Z")
> [@si\_blakely](#): > > As I recall (I haven’t read Dune in over 30 years) the personal shields **could** have been set to stop even slow moving objects, but the user would have run out of breathable air within the shield very quickly. Huh, so a shield is a personal Maxwell’s Demon. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised about a mere violation of the 2nd law of thermodynamics in a setting where people routinely bend time and space with their thoughts… ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2017, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sci-fi-weapons-with-bad-design-flaws/778573/203 "2017-02-22T02:19:21Z")
Is it a violation of the laws of thermodynamics if the force-shield requires a large amount of energy to create and sustain? Overall, the laws are being obeyed, just the same way your refrigerator does. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2017, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sci-fi-weapons-with-bad-design-flaws/778573/204 "2017-02-22T02:30:16Z")
> [@swampspruce](#): > > It’s only been peripherally mentioned but non- crew served [BFGs](http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/BFG) generally are really dumb unless you’re scaled to hold it (Like a Giant or Troll in D&D holding a two-handed sword one handed). Predator and the mini-gun comes to mind off the top of my head. Even if you could hold and aim it you only get about a seconds worth of firing before you’re out of ammo. > **Know what happens when you fire a Barrett .50 from the hip? You spin in a circle.** > Same applies for the stupid swords in the Final Fantasy series. Probably not. I’ve seen the recoil from a .50 (with a muzzle brake) to be compared to that of a magnum 12 gauge. What’s really rough on the shooter is that some of the sound and concussion is directed sideways/backward rather than forward. ---
**Author:** ![Asuka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@Asuka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asuka)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2017, 6:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sci-fi-weapons-with-bad-design-flaws/778573/205 "2017-02-22T06:02:08Z")
> [@smiling\_bandit](#): > > I don’t believe that was ever continuity. > > I have a theory that the TIE/X-Wing difference came indirectly from WW2. The TIE would have been based on the Japanese “Zero,” being a lightning-quick fighter but one without the firepower or toughness for a stand-up brawl. The X-Wing was probably based on the various American aircraft, which tended to be much tougher and more heavily armed. I could never find any specific description to demonstrate this, but I assume it’s because Lucas was familiar with old war movies and used them to describe his setting and develop his space battles. I read in a book long ago that the X-Wing’s were deliberately designed after WW2 fighters. Notably the “lock s-foils into attack position” is based off the dive breaks on an SBD Dauntless dive bomber and the R2DR position is based off the “bubble” rear gunner window of a TBF Avenger torpedo bomber. Both were also well known for their rugged construction. ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2017, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sci-fi-weapons-with-bad-design-flaws/778573/206 "2017-02-22T13:13:46Z")
> [@snfaulkner](#): > > I think the detonators arm themselves from an impeller on the nose of the bomb. Falling a few feet wouldn’t be enough to arm themselves. Tail, actually. As [this](https://youtu.be/yzK0GBEkFxc?t=83) … documentary shows _Arizona_ buying it. Also, the bombs were kept on safe with a pull-ring and a short length of cable jamming the works. After takeoff, the bombardier and engineer would pull all of the rings. When I was a kid, a friend’s bombardier father showed me his collection of rings with the date and a city on a tag for each one. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2017, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sci-fi-weapons-with-bad-design-flaws/778573/207 "2017-02-22T13:25:33Z")
> [@Asuka](#): > > I read in a book long ago that the X-Wing’s were deliberately designed after WW2 fighters. And the Death Star trench run was lifted from [The Dam Busters](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dam_Busters_%28film%29). ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2017, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sci-fi-weapons-with-bad-design-flaws/778573/208 "2017-02-22T19:06:07Z")
> [@running\_coach](#): > > Probably not. I’ve seen the recoil from a .50 (with a muzzle brake) to be compared to that of a magnum 12 gauge. What’s really rough on the shooter is that some of the sound and concussion is directed sideways/backward rather than forward. I think you really need one of those helmets that aircraft carrier deck crewmen wear to shoot a .50 with a muzzle brake. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![swampspruce](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/swampspruce/32/261_2.png) [@swampspruce](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/swampspruce)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2017, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sci-fi-weapons-with-bad-design-flaws/778573/209 "2017-02-23T22:16:51Z")
> [@running\_coach](#): > > Probably not. I’ve seen the recoil from a .50 (with a muzzle brake) to be compared to that of a magnum 12 gauge. What’s really rough on the shooter is that some of the sound and concussion is directed sideways/backward rather than forward. Good point, and I probably could have used a better example like this [one](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNyILOTCkLM)… I don’t care how big you are, this is [dumb](https://images.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=http%3A%2F%2Fimg1.ak.crunchyroll.com%2Fi%2Fspire2%2F02032008%2F3%2F9%2F3%2Fd%2F393d0bb2371a90_full.jpg&f=1). ---
**Author:** ![lazybratsche](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ba8739/32.png) [@lazybratsche](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lazybratsche)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2017, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sci-fi-weapons-with-bad-design-flaws/778573/210 "2017-02-23T23:06:30Z")
> [@Trinopus](#): > > Is it a violation of the laws of thermodynamics if the force-shield requires a large amount of energy to create and sustain? Overall, the laws are being obeyed, just the same way your refrigerator does. True, but without doing a bunch of math from a barely-remembered thermochem class, the energy required to maintain that has to be mindbogglingly enormous. Besides, if the gas in the shield has a root mean square velocity of, say, 1 m/s, the temperature inside is 1 milliKelvin. That alone presents another rather significant set of problems for the shield user… ---
**Author:** ![Damuri\_Ajashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/898d66/32.png) [@Damuri\_Ajashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damuri_Ajashi)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2017, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sci-fi-weapons-with-bad-design-flaws/778573/211 "2017-03-01T14:53:38Z")
> [@scr4](#): > > The Death Star has a more inexplicable flaw - while it can travel interstellar distances in a matter of days, it takes _hours_ to get to the other side of a planet. You can’t enter hyperspace from a gravity well. Creating artificial gravity wells is how you prevent ships from escaping by jumping away. ---
**Author:** ![Damuri\_Ajashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/898d66/32.png) [@Damuri\_Ajashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damuri_Ajashi)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2017, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sci-fi-weapons-with-bad-design-flaws/778573/212 "2017-03-01T14:59:23Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > Blasters and Phasers dont seem to be any much better than modern small arms. Except Phasers can stun. No recoil. Little or no range or windage adjustments necessary. Almost unlimited ammo. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2017, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sci-fi-weapons-with-bad-design-flaws/778573/213 "2017-03-01T15:06:02Z")
> [@Trinopus](#): > > Is it a violation of the laws of thermodynamics if the force-shield requires a large amount of energy to create and sustain? Overall, the laws are being obeyed, just the same way your refrigerator does. > [@Damuri\_Ajashi](#): > > You can’t enter hyperspace from a gravity well. Creating artificial gravity wells is how you prevent ships from escaping by jumping away. Speaking of these two, the amount of energy required for a tractor beam would be quite immense as well. When they recently discovered gravitational waves, they estimated that the black holes involved were temporarily putting out as much energy as the rest of the universe combined, and the gravitational waves would have been barely felt at 1 AU. ---
**Author:** ![Damuri\_Ajashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/898d66/32.png) [@Damuri\_Ajashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damuri_Ajashi)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2017, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sci-fi-weapons-with-bad-design-flaws/778573/214 "2017-03-01T15:29:54Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > That was Niven, and is yet another proof of just how shaky his knowledge of optics is. Yeah I figured that out when I burned my ass on a shiny (like a mirror) stainless steel stool. ---
**Author:** ![Damuri\_Ajashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/898d66/32.png) [@Damuri\_Ajashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damuri_Ajashi)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2017, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sci-fi-weapons-with-bad-design-flaws/778573/215 "2017-03-01T15:40:19Z")
> [@Finagle](#): > > Hard to see any real benefit vs passing a piece of high velocity steel or lead through the same object. Maybe for long distances, you don’t have to worry about windage or gravity, but you do have to worry about diffraction and beam spreadage. Also, if there are any specular surfaces around, you could put your eye out. I think the notion is that we will eventually develop a way to fit a fusion reactor into the magazine well of a blaster and end up with virtually limitless ammo. > [@](#): > > Also, I wouldn’t want to be _anywhere_ around a variable sword or any other type of monofilament infinitely sharp weapon unless I was wearing a protective suit, because the mere idea of fighting or even being in the same room with a flailing length of “cut anything in half” gives me the willies. I love the idea of monofilament blades. Monofilament blades tend to come in two varieties. In one, the monofilament is kept taut like the bow of a violin and is like a regular sword that has a monofilament edge that lines the edge of a regular sword that acts like a wedge behind the monofilament blade. In the other the monofilament blade is retractable and is kept taut by magnetic repulsion (usually from a ball at the tip of the monofilament. The tension is taut enough to prevent momentum from letting the monofilament whip around but there is still a little bit of whipping action like a fencing foil but the action is in the blade. ---
**Author:** ![Damuri\_Ajashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/898d66/32.png) [@Damuri\_Ajashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damuri_Ajashi)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2017, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sci-fi-weapons-with-bad-design-flaws/778573/216 "2017-03-01T15:44:11Z")
> [@TYphoonSignal8](#): > > Dune’s shields. Stop fast projectiles, don’t stop slow melee weapons. > > So you can’t kill me with a machine gun, but you could smack my brains out with a frying pan. Rightio. And an energy weapon turns you into a nuclear bomb ---
**Author:** ![Damuri\_Ajashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/898d66/32.png) [@Damuri\_Ajashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damuri_Ajashi)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2017, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sci-fi-weapons-with-bad-design-flaws/778573/217 "2017-03-01T15:46:39Z")
> [@Blue\_Blistering\_Barnacle](#): > > Niven had a field that could hold you immobile, used in his “crash field” and “police web”. I don’t think it was based on acceleration or jerk. Yeah, there was a landing party that was held immobile by a bunch of kids throwing rocks at them ad nauseum. ---
**Author:** ![Francis\_Vaughan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/francis_vaughan/32/3093_2.png) [@Francis\_Vaughan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Francis_Vaughan)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2017, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sci-fi-weapons-with-bad-design-flaws/778573/218 "2017-03-01T16:43:08Z")
A vote for the Lazygun from Iain Banks’ Against a Dark Background. A weapon with a sense of humour. With the small detail that any attempt to dismantle it will cause an explosion of planet destroying intensity. Which obviously brings up the bombs from Dark Star. Now _that_ is a poorly thought out bit of design. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2017, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sci-fi-weapons-with-bad-design-flaws/778573/219 "2017-03-01T17:25:12Z")
> [@Damuri\_Ajashi](#): > > No recoil. > > Little or no range or windage adjustments necessary. > > Almost unlimited ammo. How long will the battery last? ---
**Author:** ![Damuri\_Ajashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/898d66/32.png) [@Damuri\_Ajashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damuri_Ajashi)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2017, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sci-fi-weapons-with-bad-design-flaws/778573/220 "2017-03-01T18:40:21Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > How long will the battery last? Do you remember anyone ever reloading? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sci-fi-weapons-with-bad-design-flaws/778573.md?page=10) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sci-fi-weapons-with-bad-design-flaws/778573.md?page=12)