Normal guns have recoil because a bullet has a firing cap at its base, and a hammer strikes the cap to ignite the propellant inside the round to launch the round down the chamber. Lasers are energy weapons and don't need any propellant to guide them. ????????????????
Laser rifles are so advanced they recoil at the slight possibility of killing something. what exactly are we talking about? what game series movie or other fiction? or are you experiencing recoil using a real laser?
XCom 2 has conventional -> Magnetic (railgun)-> ( magnetic (gauss/Coilgun in Long war 2 mod) )-> plasma no laser weapons, the plasma looks like some sort of concentrated MASER beam rather than contained bolts though. the power involved might throw off aim and if the sights or the aim of the soldier is off well meh.
Any movie/game franchise involving lasers really. Halo, xcom, star wars (though Markoth already put the kibosh on that one), starship troopers, Psycho-Pass (I think that had laser guns in it, right?), etc. It just seems like any time I see one, they always recoil as though there's something being pushed through the chamber.
Halo uses plasma I think I would say XCOM enemy unknown/within uses the same type of energy weapon as in Star wars and then upgrades to plasma and I adressed XCOM 2 already. starship troopers... which one? the anime the movies or something else? because the plasma bugs use eh.... plasma, the scorpion bugs in Starship troopers 3 do seem to use more directed energy weapons but still plasma and also that movie sucked ( there is apparently a starship troopers reboot currently being made) or perhaps you mean roughnecks chronicles series, or the animated movies? Psycho-pass I got no idea but to me it looks like it also uses a giant burst of microwaves in some modes. like the pain/heat ray but smaller and deadlier. there is definatly some form of knockback but it does collect energy at the muzzle prior to the shot so that probably heats up the surrounding air somewhat. it could be an air pressure/cooling/ built in feature thing to be fair the knockback doesnt seem that apparent in Lethal eliminator mode in which a beam comes out of an obvious barrel the destroy decomposer mode literally blasts through a metal robot so I think there is something there
Are we sure a laser weapon wouldn't recoil? A force is being expelled and so there should be a opposite force going the other way, unless i'm remembering my A-Level physics wrong. I don't think it matters that it is light rather than a physical object.
Wait why does the XCOM laser shotgun have pump action and what are the men reloading them with? do guns in Mass effect use recoil? they heated up and then needed to cool down in 1 and in 2 and 3 they start using Heat sinks as ammo, it's so silly as an idea and totally understandable that instead of waiting for a weapon to cool down you just replace the heatsink XD
I found someone who made calculations. http://thevirtuosi.blogspot.nl/2010/04/today-id-like-to-approach-question-near.html he says the force for same kinetic impact for laser and .22 overall would be 20 million times less for the laser but if the firing time is measured in nanoseconds for the laser the newtons of force would aproach the same newtons as a .22 bullet being fired (firing time in seconds) so depending on what causes knockback yes there is and yes there is enough to notice.
if your flashlight is hitting people with the power of a bullet you may actually be holding a gun. Have you tried holding a flashlight forever? will a flashlight with an infinite powersource in a gravity free vacuum be a very slow rocket?
A laser is focused light. But what is the source the of light? It would have to be quite intense to begin with to be weapon grade. I suspect the light source to be a miniature explosion just like in kinetic weapons. Recoil confirmed
