The Phased Plasma Gun (or PPG) is a fictional weapon from the TV series Babylon 5. It fires a small charge of superheated gas. This gas retains both its shape and small volume via a residual magnetic field. Upon impact with an object, the magnetic field is dissipated and the heat discharged. PPG bolts can cause significant visible distortion as they travel through air. Babylon 5 is an epic science fiction television series created, produced, and largely written by J. Michael Straczynski. ...
The PPG is composed only of highly heat-resistant alloys, due to the rapid and extreme heating and cooling that it must endure during regular use. One of these alloys is morbidium, a metal that is harder than diamond. The electromagnetic firing coil is composed of morbidium, and has the gun's serial number printed on it, so that PPGs are just as traceable as modern guns.
Because it does not cause damage by penetration, it is standard issue military sidearm for space based personel, even though PPGs are more expensive to produce. The reasoning being that a stray bullet may puncture the hull causing unintended decompression.
In the film The Terminator, the character played by Arnold Schwarzenegger goes to a gun shop in present day LA and requests a "Phase Plasma Rifle with a 40 watt range", a weapon from his own time.
The ray fired is stated in each scenario to be laser or particle beam or plasma, or some form of energy which does not exist in the real world, or is undefined.
A "beam gun" in anime is an energy weapon which fires a colored beam of light.
Recent developments in the real world in laser guns have produced artillery-sized weapons which might be described as rayguns, but usually are not.
When the gas is in a plasma state, it is "fired" down the barrel of the gun by the sequential activation of electromagnets in the barrel.
PPGs manufactured in Earth Force territory have a serial number stamped on the morbidium coil during manufacture to allow the weapon to be traced easily.
As Narn manufacturing is sometimes lacking in the required alloys for PPG barrels and must use inferior metals, the Kalat Avenger uses three barrels to distribute the heat generated by firing the plasma blast.
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