# Why do lasers go "pew pew", anyway? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** movies\ **Created:** [April 6, 2025, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-lasers-go-pew-pew-anyway/1016712 "2025-04-06T21:10:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2025, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-lasers-go-pew-pew-anyway/1016712/21 "2025-04-07T14:08:22Z")
> [@Jasmine](#): > > As I understand my movie history, sound effects - especially in SciFi - came strongly into vogue with the invention of the Theremin in the 1950s. Then came the Moog Synthesizer in 1964, and the silent vacuum of space was doomed forever. Laser/Phaser/Ray gun sound effects pre-dated the Moog and, arguably, the Theremin. (There was a theremin in the score for _The Day the Earth Stood Still_, but it wasn’t used for the ray gun sound. The “blaster” sound effects for _Forbidden Planet_ might have used Louis and Bebe Barron’s “electronic tonalities”, which weren’t done with a theremin or a Moog). The sound effects for the Martian “heat ray” in both the 1938 radio drama and the 1951 movie didn’t use electronic effects. In fact, I can’t think of a single example of “ray gun sound produced by Theremin or Moog”. They were generally used for moody musical scores. ---
**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:** [April 7, 2025, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-lasers-go-pew-pew-anyway/1016712/22 "2025-04-07T14:24:25Z")
> [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](#): > > Star Wars guns aren’t lasers or ray guns, though, right? They shoot individual projectiles made of energy. In modern canon, > Operating under the same principles as laser weaponry and firing at least partially by means of magnetic induction, blasters converted energy-rich gas to a glowing particle beam that could pierce and melt through targets. > **[Blaster](https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Blaster)** > > A blaster,\[2\] also called a gun,\[3\] was any type of ranged weapon that fired bolts of intense plasma or particle-based energy, often mistaken for lasers. Operating under the same principles as laser weaponry and firing at least partially by means of... ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2025, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-lasers-go-pew-pew-anyway/1016712/23 "2025-04-07T18:46:35Z")
My mind keeps getting ahead of my fingers, so thanks for the correction. Nitpickers of the world unite! ---
**Author:** ![Hypno-Toad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b2d939/32.png) [@Hypno-Toad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypno-Toad)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2025, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-lasers-go-pew-pew-anyway/1016712/24 "2025-04-07T20:08:22Z")
In my world, the street slang for such guns is “Brannigan” or “Rowsdower.” ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2025, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-lasers-go-pew-pew-anyway/1016712/25 "2025-04-07T22:19:59Z")
A laser that travels about as fast as soccer ball ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2025, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-lasers-go-pew-pew-anyway/1016712/26 "2025-04-07T22:32:50Z")
Sometimes they go “squish-squish”: > [https://youtu.be/AvM5lek4zLw](https://youtu.be/AvM5lek4zLw) ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2025, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-lasers-go-pew-pew-anyway/1016712/27 "2025-04-07T22:52:15Z")
I think any kind of laser weapon would be quiet. Like a real laser. So, why do they go pew pew? The movie answer is - you can’t tell they’re firing without a sound. Plus it would look stupid to have silent ray guns. The in-universe answer is - the guns have a speaker to make the pew pew sound, because you can’t tell they are firing without a sound. Plus, it would be dangerous to have silent ray guns. Who knows who you would shoot accidentally.\* \*The Mote In God’s Eye, when the marines find what they eventually determine is a hand-held X-ray laser weapon. They don’t even know if it is doing anything, until a tram car full of dead Warriors pulls into the station. Yup, it was firing all right! ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2025, 9:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-lasers-go-pew-pew-anyway/1016712/28 "2025-04-08T09:14:38Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > I think any kind of laser weapon would be quiet. Like a real laser. In space, definitely, but wouldn’t certain sufficiently powerful lasers ionize the air and make a sizzling sound? ---
**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:** [April 8, 2025, 9:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-lasers-go-pew-pew-anyway/1016712/29 "2025-04-08T09:45:09Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > Yep. I used to whack a telephone pole guy wire when I was a kid in the late-'60s. I thought the sound was the coolest. Ages ago when BART was being built in East Bay I went down to watch them from a safe distance and that afternoon they were laying the [continuous welded rail](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Railway_track#Continuous_welded_rail) in q7uarter-mile sections. The ties were concrete and the rail held down by a clip which in turn was fastened with a big bolt screwed in with an air wrench. I was about 3/4 down from the fastened end and when the wrench drove in the bolt it would make the rail vibrate. I could hear the sound, similar to a whacked guy wire, zip down the rail faster than in the air, reflect from the open end to come back to the fastened end, then return for a second and even third round trip before it died away all in about two seconds. About the time I was hearing the first reflection go by is when I’d hear the rat-a-tat from the wrench through the open air. It was totally cool. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2025, 11:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-lasers-go-pew-pew-anyway/1016712/30 "2025-04-08T11:55:02Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > I think any kind of laser weapon would be quiet. Like a real laser. > > So, why do they go pew pew? > > The movie answer is - you can’t tell they’re firing without a sound. Plus it would look stupid to have silent ray guns. > > The in-universe answer is - the guns have a speaker to make the pew pew sound, because you can’t tell they are firing without a sound. Plus, it would be dangerous to have silent ray guns. Who knows who you would shoot accidentally.\* > > \*The Mote In God’s Eye, when the marines find what they eventually determine is a hand-held X-ray laser weapon. They don’t even know if it is doing anything, until a tram car full of dead Warriors pulls into the station. Yup, it was firing all right! Lasers make noises because it’s dramatically impressive, and audiences expect it. Having worked with lasers for decades, i know that most are completely silent. You get noise from the circulating pumps or the discharge when a flashlamp goes off, or some other peripheral. But cw diode lasers, HeNe laser, HeCd laser, and a host of others make no noise at all. So I found it hilarious that, in the episode of _The Avengers_ TV show “From Venus with LOve” a scien tist listening to a tape recording declares the “winding up increasing pitch” sound unequivocally as “the sound of a laser.” (For the record, I never heard a laser make a sound like that). Goldfinger’s metal-cutting laser (which is clearly based on a photograph of Maiman’s first ruby laser) makes a whipcrack sound followed by a constant low trilling. It’s cutting metal and threatening to bisect Jame Bond. It has to make SOME kind of noise. The excuse of making a sound to show people (and animals) that something dangerous is around was made in Robert Sheckley’s 1958 short story “A Gun without a Bang”, and more recently in a n RPG where “Wilk Lasers” (I love that name) can come equipped with a custom roar, jst because. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2025, 12:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-lasers-go-pew-pew-anyway/1016712/31 "2025-04-08T12:10:46Z")
Took me a bit to remember the name of the game – it’s **Rifts** > **[Wilk's Brand Laser Weapons](https://riftsdeathshead.fandom.com/wiki/Wilk%27s_Brand_Laser_Weapons)** > > E-6 laser cartridges come in two standard sizes, Pistol and Rifle. Pistol cartridges are fired out of pistol-equivalent weapons and come 20 to the pound; rifle cartridges are fired out of rifle-equivalent weapons and come 15 to the pound. A pound of... > **[Wilks Laser Technologies - Forums of the Megaverse®](https://palladiumbooks.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=64641)** > **[Wilks 320](https://rifts.fandom.com/wiki/Wilks_320)** > > An excellent laser pistol known for its durability, range, accuracy and light weight. It is a sleek, black plastic and ceramic weapon popular among most mercenaries and adventurers. Headhunters and city rats are especially fond of the Wilk's series... ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2025, 12:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-lasers-go-pew-pew-anyway/1016712/32 "2025-04-08T12:17:56Z")
Think of the transformer whine from a camera flash charging, then… zap! Not everybody has handled those, but many ought to be familiar with it. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2025, 12:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-lasers-go-pew-pew-anyway/1016712/33 "2025-04-08T12:25:48Z")
> [@DPRK](#): > > Think of the transformer whine from a camera flash charging, then… zap! I’ve heard this from cameras, but never from a laser flashlamp. I don’t think I’ve heard it from a camera in years, either. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2025, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-lasers-go-pew-pew-anyway/1016712/34 "2025-04-08T13:16:52Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > Nitpickers of the world unite! Shouldn’t there be a comma in there, somewhere? ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2025, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-lasers-go-pew-pew-anyway/1016712/35 "2025-04-08T13:17:46Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > In space, definitely, but wouldn’t certain sufficiently powerful lasers ionize the air and make a sizzling sound? In space, no one can hear your beam. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2025, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-lasers-go-pew-pew-anyway/1016712/36 "2025-04-08T14:54:08Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > In space, definitely, but wouldn’t certain sufficiently powerful lasers ionize the air and make a sizzling sound? I’ve never heard anything like this. The closest I’ve come is when a Q-switch mode-locked laser focused to a fine focus ionized the air and made an audible “snap!” sound. ---
**Author:** ![Hypno-Toad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b2d939/32.png) [@Hypno-Toad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypno-Toad)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2025, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-lasers-go-pew-pew-anyway/1016712/37 "2025-04-08T15:02:44Z")
What kind of sound does it make when a laser beam hits something? a bang as the thing explodes? Some other kind of sound? ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2025, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-lasers-go-pew-pew-anyway/1016712/38 "2025-04-08T15:06:49Z")
I work with lasers everyday but there is so much moving air involved (nozzle, cooling, and exhaust) you usually can’t hear the actual laser during production. But during (200W and 125W) tube and alignment tests you can hear a faint “zzzzz” if the relative humidity is high enough. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2025, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-lasers-go-pew-pew-anyway/1016712/39 "2025-04-08T15:37:57Z")
Remember, we’re talking about sci-fi lasers here - lasers that can slice a man in half like an industrial bandsaw. Do lasers like that exist in real life? ---
**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:** [April 8, 2025, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-lasers-go-pew-pew-anyway/1016712/40 "2025-04-08T15:49:54Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > I’ve heard this from cameras, but never from a laser flashlamp. I don’t think I’ve heard it from a camera in years, either. 20+ years ago when I used to buy disposable cameras (at a cheap surplus store, not full price) I would take the film out for developing instead of sending the whole camera, and disassemble the whole thing just for fun. I had one with a flash that I had peeled the cardboard case from and serendipitously discovered a pair of outward-facing wire ends that I could touch to conveniently drain the flash capacitor into myself. I think it had the proper whine, though. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-lasers-go-pew-pew-anyway/1016712.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-lasers-go-pew-pew-anyway/1016712.md?page=3)