[Puke]

Right, what Cyrien and I are talking about is not the recoil of the laser its self - i only mentioned that in the argument to disway anyone that might have wanted to nit-pick about the small external forces generated by the beam of light its self.

if you read about the laser rifle linked below, it is a chemical laser and works by means of compresed gasses reacting at extremely high velocities and pressures. one of the technical problems is that there has not yet been invented a mechanism to recompress the gas for a second shot. another listed problem is that the gasses surging through the weapon will exert a forward force of 90lbs. meaning that the weapon would leap out of your frikin hands.

because i took physics so long ago and dont know nearly as much as i like to let on, i cant understand this. to me, it seems like this should be an internal force, since none of the gas leaves the weapon. thus, my solonoid example. but the more i think about it, the solonoid will probalby twitch back and forth on the table - in a perfect system it would always end up in the same spot - but it would twitch none the less. i think. maybe. dont have a solonoid handy to try it out.

can someone with a better grasp on newtonian physics explain this to me?