Saw a comment on the new release trailer that's on youtube regarding energy weapons and recoil... So i was thinking in my head, isn't recoil just the by-product of acceleration? So wouldn't energy weapons HAVE recoil if the particles contain mass, and are being accelerated?

New trailer looks awesome in my eyes and my expectations just keep growing. I saw a lot of potential in regards to gameplay, play time, and non-main questline content. Weapon mods look great, i noticed the barbed wire around the minigun, that was sweet. I think to many people had way to high of hopes and are now bashing the game.

Laser weapons shouldn't other than maybe mechanisms to prevent over heating, gauss and plasma would think so.

Yes an gaus gun would have decent recoil, plasma weapons some, lasers none except as you say other reasons.

if you fire an faster and smaller bullet you recoil scale down if energy level is kept the same.

In RL, you really wouldn't really "fire" a laser weapon, but turn it on and then off (like a flashlight). Certainly there could be significant operations happening in terms of capacitor charging and active cooling systems, but the actual release of energy via the beam itself would not generate a reactive force opposite the direction the beam is directed.

True but hand held lasers that can blast holes in people dont exist.

Lets suspend disbelief here for a second.

I say the laser has a mechanical mechanism that operates every time you pull the trigger for SCIENCE! Reasons.

That is the recoil you see and feel.

Except we do have lasers capable of destroying vehicles, the only issue is that it's not handheld, as the energy required is immense.

I think there's a recoil because it would be OP for Lasers to have no recoil, instant-headshots wherever you point.

Technically speaking, even a flashlight has recoil. Anything that projects something (even if it is just pure energy) would have an "equal and opposite reaction".

In our universe you would be able to measure the recoil of a US Army AER9 Laser Rifle in a laboratory, but it would be so slight as to not be noticed by a human firing it. A lot of the physical laws behave differently in the Fallout Universe so the recoil from an AER9 might be very noticeable.

They're developing ion engines for space flight...

But if a reason is needed for recoiling e weapons in FO, you could say the energy discharge at the muzzle super heats the air molecules there, causing them to expand explosively. Think thunder clap.
Lightning and thunder.

Yeah, Lasers would have recoil but it's so small due to the minuscule mass of the particles that it would be impercetible.

Technically, everything in the EW tree would give recoil.

Lasers won't give recoil, as the speed of the photons are irrelevent to their damage. The recoil from a laser beam couldn't move the gun if it was hung from a string- the mass of the gun is too much to be signifcantly affected by the beam, let alone the person using the gun. However, the person getting shot by a laser WILL feel the hit, as the laser superheats material and tissue, flash-boiling any water and causing a small, bloody explosion on the point of impact. In fact, cauterization of wounds is not realistic when dealing with laser weaponry. The beam is typically too brief to actually sear the flesh.

Laser weapons probably have recoil for the same reason that guns shoot bullet casings to the left of the weapon, in front of the person, instead of to the right. More "dynamic" than the real way.

What I was thinking as well.

Energy weapons should not have recoil as a general rule. That includes Gauss/Railguns because all they do is activate a magnetic "tunnel" to accelerate a slug with NO recoil (that is the entire point, in fact). Plasma is the fourth state of matter (solid, liquid, gas, plasma) and should not have recoil, or not anything that would be significant when firing a weapon with a plasma blob as a missile/projectile of sorts.

In short, conventional weapons have recoil because of kinetic physics between the gun and physical projectile used, but that does not apply to energy forms, nor does it apply to physical projectiles that are fired without any need for action/reaction (e.g., railguns).

a laser rifles beam would also be traveling at the speed of light... but it doesnt, because its a game.

People are just trying to find reasons to hate on this game, thankfully the smart ones can see right through the crap. I mean they all got owned about the graphics being bad, and now the fight is on about facial animations? Soon it will be how particles are floating when nothing has distrurbed them therefore Fallout 4= horrible game dont buy you are all bethesdrones and support a crap game that isnt even next gen have fun with all the 2005 graphics lol. Damn i love being able to complain from any arguments side.

There's a little alien inside the laser gun operating it.

Serious though,it's kinda weird there is any recoil on the gun and the sound is almost like a projectile bullet then a laser.

Light doesn't have mass. Gauss is a magnetized projectile and plasma is a super-heated liquid for of energy (I believe.) so I think the latter two would have mass vs acceleration and therefor have recoil because every action has an equal and opposite reaction.
The recoil on laser weapons could be caused by the kick of the mechanism that causes the laser-projectile to be released, though.
Like the laser-musket has crank and more moving parts, reminiscent to clockwork and might have an internal motion that causes a recoiling effect.

I'm fairly certain gauss rifles would have tons of recoil. It's still a force repelling a bullet or slug to insane speeds within two or three feet. The reason coil guns produce less recoil is because they're being accelerated over time rather than (almost) instantaneously. In fact, it's very possible that the recoil from this gun would kill its user if it were to be used in real life. If the projectile left the barrel at the same velocity as a regular sniper round, then it would have less recoil. However, because of how fast it seems to travel (making the bullet seemingly "explode" on impact), I'd say it would have enough power to rip the user's arm off.

Actualy, thinking it differently, if you press the on button on the flashlight, it will move ever so slightly due to you putting pressure in a defined direction. Same goes for pulling a trigger. Even if no mechanical reason exists for laser weapons to have recoil, the combination of your hand trembling and you pulling back on the trigger, will slightly move the weapon upward a bit. This can be seen as recoil, despite it being caused by you, the user, instead of the weapon.

That said, recoil on laser weapons would be nearly unnoticable like you said by the user, and would likely require a bunch of scientific test to actualy prove that it exsists.

Well, it's because it's also shooting a crystallized iodine lathed sheath to keep the laser light from defusing before it reaches it's target... plus there's a really chubby gremlin inside the gun that jumps up and down every time you pull the trigger.

Thanks for the points guys and gals. I'd much rather talk about something like this, rather than talk about potential spoilers and Bull crap that the devs are tired of reading about. But yes i agree that a laser weapon, if having no recoil, would be OP as **** and hands down be the weapon of choice (as stated "auto headshots"). Maybe someone is reading this right now who will play a role in designing and writing the physics on a new game or something. We would never know. But like i said, thanks for the replies. a good community here.

That's only correct with laser weapon. Plasma may have notable recoil, and any kind of magnetically-accelerated weapon will have significant recoil.

Too add to this, the magnets are attached to the gun. As the magnets attract the slug, classical physics come into play. For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction, et cetera. As the magnets pull the slug, the slug also pulls the magnets, which causes the magnets (and the gun itself) to be pushed into the user, creating recoil. The stronger the magnets, the stronger the recoil.

This, of course, ignores the fact that a https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Railgun uses magnetic rails, which touch the bullet. It does so to complete a circuit, creating the magnetic effect that launches the slug. As a result, after a few rounds, the rails are hopelessly warped due to friction and heat, and therefore need to be replaced. The Gauss Rifle appears to act closer to a coilgun, which doesn't require the magnets to touch the slug and thus have less wear and tear as well as (theoretically) less recoil.

A few things before the lesson...

LASER is actually an acronym. Most people probably don't know this. It stands for Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation.

Light is just energy that is propagated from atoms absorbing and releasing energy.

A LASER is really just throwing radiation out into the world to stimulate amplified light. For it to do some significant damage, there needs to be a LOT of radiation present. Or... Energy.

Finally... acceleration is just one of the biproducts seen from recoil.

Recoil as a physics phenomenon is the change in momentum between two contacting masses. Recoil is also a product of any form of change in momentum between bodies created by magnetic, and electrical fields. As that energy also moves mass around if it's massive enough. A common hand held laser won't generate any notable recoil or change in momentum. But it's technically present. Once again, just too miniscule to notice.

But for a weaponized laser pistol? Massive amounts of energy is probably being manipulated and sent through transformers, transistors, what ever the heck is in that thing. The recoil is possibly caused by an internal magnetic field created by moving energy.

The more you know!

PS: Light, even lasers can't be seen without refracting off of some medium. So either the world's air is lousy with smog, dust, or moisture... or the gun is dumping out enough energy that it's capable of turning an entire line in space into plasma instantaneously. Would explain a lot really...

EDIT: Now that I think about it... the energy weapons are actually really well designed. They don't have a lens for a laser to be emitted. The thing basically is a radiation cannon.