Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

This thread is full of LOL!

I say:

best answer = whatever colour you want
fluff answer = the white that most Guard art depicts
fluffier answer = why's your Commisar messing around with Las?

And if you're going to follow the "Rule of Cool" advice, make sure the laspistol is ejecting shells as it fires. Sure, a laser weapon is clearly not firing off shelled rounds, but shells look awesome, right?

MechaEmperor7000 wrote:Laspistols fire red ones but the Lascannons fire blue ones. perhaps it's related the relative indicator of strength? (Red heat is generally accepted as cooler than blue heat. Remember I said Generally).

Connor McKane wrote:I may be mistaken but I believe that the Green Laser Frequency is the strongest. So I would guess green.

These two posts make the Physics Teacher part of me cry.

Not just wrong, but not even wrong about the right thing.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Okay, I'll bite...

Right, Let's have a lesson in "Light 101". I'll be dumbing this down, so please don't get on my case telling me I am a crap Physics teacher, I know some of what I am writing is gross-simplification at best and "lies-we-tell-to-children" at worst.

All EM radiation, including visible light is a collection of photons. Photons are simply tiny packets of energy.

The greater the energy of each photon, the higher the frequency of the wave of light they are "part of". (E=hf)

The higher the frequency, the shorter the wavelength (c=f x lambda)

Visible light goes from long wavelength (ie low energy photons) at Red, though Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo and Violet, where you have a much shorter wavelength (ie, higher energy photons). At either end of the visible range are Infra-Red and and Ultra-Violet.

Now, the total energy you will be receiving from the light will be equal to the energy of each photon multiplied by the quantity of photons. Thus, the total energy is completely independent of the wavelength of the light.

However, the energy per photon does have an important effect. For example Ultra-Violet light (high energy photons) is the part of sunlight that gives you cancer (and I'll not get into how that happens in this thread, but trust me, it is true), whereas low energy photons in Infra-Red light are unable to damage your cells in the same way. They can still cook you if there are enough of them, but individually Infra-Red photons are relatively harmless. Now, the higher the energy per photon the more other effects you can have, for example, the photoelectric effect... but I am getting distracted again.

Basically, the colour of the light has no effect on the total amount of energy transmitted. Red and Violet light can both do the same amount of damage by heating.

How about using some of the stuff, I make my coloured necron rods from, these come in 500mm legnth and 2.4mm diameter, come in flourescent red green yellow or ice blue.

Have a look at my gallery images for them, and a link to my ebay auctions.

Ellis

Red I would assume. IMO looks normal..

LOOOOOÖÖÖÖÖÖÖLLLL

looks liek yellow to me.

Actually, my guess would be what color lens do you want your troops to have access to? I mean there are ruby lasers, emerald lasers, etc. the description in fluff is that they use focussing lenses based on some made made crystals like ruby for red, emerald for green beams, and so on. I usually paint the red at the tips as it is likely easy to make ruby lenses.

The greater the energy of each photon, the higher the frequency of the wave of light they are "part of". (E=hf)

Energy = Heavy flamer

I would also like to congratulate you on your lesson, as i can understand it and i'm doing stardard grade (GCSE) physics...

And going by what Mr Physics man said i would go for the Rule of Cool and use Red

I'm pretty sure in the GG novels they are described at different points as being both blue and orange bars of light. I'd do whatever you wanted, red would look cool, and remember lasfire cauterises instantly, so no blood!

romeo.lima wrote:40k runs off of the Rule of Cool, so actual science is moot in relation to las weapons. Go with whatever compliments your color choice the best. Although come to think of it, if the laser were actually visible (which in real life it wouldn't be), red would indicate a low energy, going all the way through the spectrum to purple, which indicates high energy.

So that's why the guns fire purple beams in Dune...

ANyway I'd make the laspistol firing red or blue. That would look the coolest.