How do Zats work?

[Alexander E. Brent]

I have a small question...
Does anybody know or suspect how the zats work?

my little thought is that they shot an electron based bolt that once shot makes numbs the body ( like a taser or scorpio) the next shot kills becous the body cant hold so much electrons....inner organs are boild..and the third kills caus the protons are just riped to pieces by the huge amount of elec...so all the atoms in the body go puff...

but thats just my wishfull thinking here what do ya all think? (* sorx for the gramar and mistakes...i come from poland...oh and john i got your car : P )

[immhotep]

Ok here goes:

Operational instructions:
The zat is a portable hand-held device and is simple to operate. Holding the lower section in the palm of the hand, squeeze once to activate, then a second time to fire the gun. The Zat’ni’katel can be fired many times in quick succession. The primary function of the gun is to control, inflicting great pain and disabling the victim but not killing them. Often the sheer presence of the weapon can strike fear in to the people who have felt the pain it can induce.

Mechanical: powered by an internal charge mean of pure, intense energy at the intended victim. This energy is directed my two identical laser like beams. And the energy travels along those two electron paths.

Anatomical effects:
The blast from a zat gun is similar to a huge electric shock. As energy passes through the body, the victim experiences extremely painful jarring, and then shacking sensation. The powerfull blast disturbs the body's normal functions causing mass muscular inhibition followed by severe respiratory problems. This leads to a sensuousness lapse lasting up to many hours.
A second blast will cause fatal cardiac arrest and an acute internal temperature rise.
A third blast will usually cause rapid mass cellular decomposition due to intense heat.

ok thats wht i think is how the Zat works.

[helio9]

A third blast will usually cause rapid mass cellular decomposition due to intense heat.

Thats the part I always had a problem with. Assuming every shot is the same (and they must be), a third input of the same amount of energy would be nowhere near enough to completely vaporize a body. But hey, in sci-fi everything works.

[Ryuu]

It is almost certainly an electric shot. One of my friends came up with an idea that the weapon can create ionised path (conductive) by a short pulse of high power laser. Then electric charge would be sent, inflicting pain. Sort of like a taser without wires.

As for the third shot... even authors themselves reckognize this as an error (Wormhole X-Treme).

[helio9]

It is almost certainly an electric shot. One of my friends came up with an idea that the weapon can create ionised path (conductive) by a short pulse of high power laser. Then electric charge would be sent, inflicting pain. Sort of like a taser without wires.

As for the third shot... even authors themselves reckognize this as an error (Wormhole X-Treme).

Uh, not that I doubt anybody's honesty here, but its a good bet that your friend didn't in fact come up with that concept. That is a real life weapon that is under development. The problem is housing a power source capable of powering the necessary CO2 laser.

[Ryuu]

Uh, not that I doubt anybody's honesty here, but its a good bet that your friend didn't in fact come up with that concept. That is a real life weapon that is under development. The problem is housing a power source capable of powering the necessary CO2 laser.

He actually never claimed it was his idea. He just came with it when we discussed SG technologies. One time we were even thinking about building a prototype... backpack full of batteries ;-)

[helio9]

Lol. I'd love to see it. But it would take 3 car batteries or something to generate the necessary power. And probably a transformer depends in the set up. Car batteries are around 150A, so a short circuit is well...very, very bad.

If you ever do it, by all means show me a video, but...it's not at the top of my todo list.

[Major Tyler]

Thats the part I always had a problem with. Assuming every shot is the same (and they must be), a third input of the same amount of energy would be nowhere near enough to completely vaporize a body. But hey, in sci-fi everything works.

Zats work on a principle of cumulative effect. While each shot is the same, the effect of each blast persists and builds upon each other exponentially.

[FlesHBoX]

What I have always wondered is how long after the first shot the second shot will kill... Because we have seen someone wake up and be threatened by a second shot, so it must persist long after the initial "shock" effect has worn off... But for how long? Would a second shot an hour later kill? or does it have to be within say 15 minutes?

[helio9]

What I have always wondered is how long after the first shot the second shot will kill... Because we have seen someone wake up and be threatened by a second shot, so it must persist long after the initial "shock" effect has worn off... But for how long? Would a second shot an hour later kill? or does it have to be within say 15 minutes?

Good question. And sometimes a zat blast knocks people out cold for a while, but sometimes like in "prodigy" Teal'C shoots Jack and he's immediately able to run towards the gate. Granted, he had people to wake him up.

I've never really been satisfied with any scientific explanation of how the Zats are able to vaporize things. Making a one shot stun, two shot kill weapons is difficult, but probably doable. But the vaporization would take far, far more energy than it would take to stun a person. The effect can't simply be exponential...is that implying that the energy buildup within a person is exponential? That goes against the law of conservation of energy. I don't get it.

[Hoplite]

How Many time do the use the 3rd shot thing because i have never seen it happen .

[FlesHBoX]

How Many time do the use the 3rd shot thing because i have never seen it happen .

I've seen it maybe twice or three times. When they first encountered the zats and teal'c explains it to them, then I think I remember them using the third shot when they went to rescue ray'ak from apothis (the whole brain washing issue I think)


And I am pretty sure I remember once more... though I don't remember any specifics fo the episode though


Honestly since then I only recall them using a single shot most of the time, which has caused meto wonder how they can trust that they jaffa they shot won't just get up and come after them.... maybe they are double-shooting really quickly??

[helio9]

They also used it in 1969 when they had to vaporize their weapons and gear.

[Major Tyler]

What I have always wondered is how long after the first shot the second shot will kill... Because we have seen someone wake up and be threatened by a second shot, so it must persist long after the initial "shock" effect has worn off... But for how long? Would a second shot an hour later kill? or does it have to be within say 15 minutes?

It probably depends on the person. To use the Wraith as an example, zats don't work on Wraith because the cumulative effect is negated by the Wraith healing ability. They heal so fast that each shot is like the "first" shot, and since they have such a high constitution they are not rendered unconscious/crippled with pain. I suppose many shots in rapid succession would eventually kill a Wraith, but P90s have proven to be more effective in that regard, anyway.

Again, to answer your question, I depends on how quickly whomever is shot can shed the effects of the zat.

[Ascended Times.2]

Have we seen a Zat used on a Wraith? It's a fine theory, and i'll hold to it...also, very good explanation of the Zat immhotep I'd green you but, systems not working