From: utzoo!watmath!watarts!bernie
Newsgroups: net.startrek
Title: Re: Physics gaffes
Article-I.D.: watarts.1681
Posted: Tue Feb 15 11:48:22 1983
Received: Wed Feb 16 00:04:12 1983
Reply-To: bernie@watarts (Bernie Roehl)
References: brunix.1346

On the subject of phaser settings, the following would seem to be consistent :
    There are really just two settings, "stun" and "heat"; however, there
are varying *intensities* of each.  The "stun" setting can either give someone
a brief jolt but leave them conscious (see one of the earliest episodes,
"Man Trap" for an example of a low-power stun setting) or render them
unconscious altogether when used at higher power.  A still higher level of
"stun" can kill without external damage.
    The "heat" setting can be used in a narrow beam for welding, or with a
wider beam to heat rocks and things (there are two or three episodes in which
hand phasers are used to heat rocks to provide radiant heat on cold planets).
It can also (on a very high setting) be used to completely and instantaneously
vaporize objects (and, of course, people).
    The main ship's phasers are no different; you may recall an episode in
which Kirk had everyone in a radius of one city block knocked out by the
ship's phasers.
    Interesting uses of hand phasers include the high-power stun (a.k.a. "kill"
) setting used to kill Anton Karidian but leave him intact for his daughter
to weep over him, and the "disintegrate" setting used to dig graves in two
or three episodes.
				not afraid to admit that I watched
				Star Trek a *lot*,
				--Bernie Roehl
				...decvax!utzoo!watmath!watarts!bernie