The nonsense of lasers in Hollywood

(Image: Pixabay CC0) - Professor Gert-Willem Römer of the University of Twente says it's one of his pet peeves: in many science fiction and action films, lasers are used in a way that completely defy the laws of physics. Take lasers that blow up spaceships. These lasers make a sound when they are fired, but space consists of a vacuum, so sound doesn't travel there. What's more, the laser beam propagates from one spaceship to another in a straight line. This means that as an innocent bystander to the space battle, you wouldn't be able to see the beam, except if your eyes were exactly in its path. And that would end very badly for you. Eleven huge batteries in a wristwatch.