Halo: Combat Evolved Forum
This topic has moved here: Subject: Science of the Halo Verse.
  • Subject: Science of the Halo Verse.
Subject: Science of the Halo Verse.

Phoenix is dead, long live Phoenix!
Is it?

Just a quick question that has been bugging me about the halo verse for a while...

How do The Covenant have different colours of plasma?
From what I gather plasma is ionized gas, or for all those who don't like chemistry, a gas that has been stripped of an electron, and I would have thought that The Covenant would use the same type of gas for each weapon for efficiency, or if it used gas from the surroundings then the colours would be the same... so since our atmosphere is mostly nitrogen, and the ionized colour of nitrogen is red... how do we get green plasma which I take to be ionized sulphur and blue which i take to be oxygen?

I read somewhere that plasma can be electronically controlled, which fits it with the plasma pistols overcharge, it could even be able to home in on electronic signals, ie. the master chief, but I have yet to come up with a reasonable explaination for the different colours.

Could someone explain a possible theory for the different colours.

  • 04.14.2007 4:58 PM PDT

i have one, and i dont want to be mean about it, but i think you are thinking too hard on that one. its supposed to be in the future, and at that the covenant are like so much more technelogically advanced than the humans, maybe they found a way to make it green and blue. but thats a cool fact to know about plasma.

  • 04.14.2007 6:20 PM PDT
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This was Dootuz117 but i changed accounts
M!
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Posted by: just another fan
Yeah, because we all know that weird guys on youtube always speak the truth.

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They use food coloring!

  • 04.15.2007 10:55 AM PDT

Phoenix is dead, long live Phoenix!
Is it?

Posted by: DootuzPIE
They use food coloring!


Ofcourse how could I be so silly, I should of known how much they love to eat plasma, there is even a book about it. Halo: Ghosts of Plasma Hut...

  • 04.15.2007 3:12 PM PDT
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Posted by: x Lai Tasha x
Posted by: DootuzPIE
They use food coloring!


Ofcourse how could I be so silly, I should of known how much they love to eat plasma, there is even a book about it. Halo: Ghosts of Plasma Hut...


ROFL, they must love that plasma!

  • 04.15.2007 3:29 PM PDT
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you are talking about plasma as we understand it. It would be hard to explain, but my thought is they use different gases for the weapons.

  • 04.16.2007 8:13 AM PDT
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*Puts physicist hat on*

I'm not going to get too technical since it's been a while since I last studied this, but there's a couple of possibilities that come to mind.

The first is the one that's already been put forward - they use different gases within the different classes of weapons. this might be because the Covenant is made up of many races who share their tech, but who don't necessarily share the same developments, so they may have ended up producing weapons based on the same tech in different locaitons to different specs, with each area or even species now specialising in certain weapons (explaining why every plasma pistol is the same, and every plasma rifle is the same, but the two appear to have different colour plasmas).

The second is that the plasma used in different weapons might be being energised to different levels depending on the weapon. When photons drop back down through the energy levels of the atoms within the plasma, they they'll come off with a specific amount of energy that determines their frequency, and thus colour. If the different weapons bump the photons up to higher levels (say because the weapon is more powerful), then the photons given off by the shots will have different colours.

The third theory is that it's deliberate. If you thikn about it, you can set things up using the above two scenarios to ensure the weapons have different colours when fired. This suddenly becomes useful in a mass firefight - you can immediately identify who has what type of weapon among your allies without even needing to see them. With human weapons you can just about tell from the sounds of different rifles and suchlike, but if you can combine a visual element to this identification as well then you've made it that much easier.

  • 04.16.2007 11:58 AM PDT

Phoenix is dead, long live Phoenix!
Is it?

Posted by: VoidKraken
*Puts physicist hat on*

The third theory is that it's deliberate. If you thikn about it, you can set things up using the above two scenarios to ensure the weapons have different colours when fired. This suddenly becomes useful in a mass firefight - you can immediately identify who has what type of weapon among your allies without even needing to see them. With human weapons you can just about tell from the sounds of different rifles and suchlike, but if you can combine a visual element to this identification as well then you've made it that much easier.

You have a point there. It would be helpful to know what species is coming to your aid, either brutes or elites.

About your second theory. Wouldn't the Plasma cool down in flight, causing the plasma to change colour?

  • 04.16.2007 7:29 PM PDT
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In order to change colors of things in electrons, neutrons, and protons you have to add other elements from the Periodic Table, so they more than likely have added other elements into the mix in order to change the color. Why they would want to do this i do not know, but what ever floats their boat i guess. Possibly so they wouldnt get them mixed up between if an enemy has a PR or a PP.

  • 04.16.2007 8:25 PM PDT