Star Trek. Starship's shielding technology question.?

Question

In Star Trek, why is it that when a ship is fired upon by phasers, you can clearly see the outline perimeter of them, but when hit by something like torpedoes or other physical objects, such as debris, it seems as though it actually touches the hull even though the shields are still up? This is in nearly every fight scene. There doesn't seem to be any kind of answer in The Start Trek Encyclopedia.

Answer 1

well the phasers are bendable

Answer 2

I'll take a stab at this. The phasers are an energy beam and their energy is spread over the shielding. Thus the shield become visible for a brief period. The photon torpedoes and debris are solid objects and thus need to be handled by the shields in a concentrated manner. I doubt they touch the hull or damage would result.

Answer 3

In theory you should see the shield perimeter regardless of what is impacting them (phasers, torpedoes, meteors etc) But keep in mind in the original Star Trek series you didn't actually see shield outlines, that was a special effect added as computer graphics systems became widely used in the industry. I guess the thinking is that with phasers and enegry weapons, it makes sense to illuminate the shield briefly with the dissipated energy.

But the visual effect wasn't really based upon how the technology should work, it was simply done for visual appeal.

Answer 4

Tele transporters, a stupid theory only many years in the past, considered no longer in common words in in call for human being Trek, yet also in Time device and The Fly, are literally a reality (see Parallel Universes in YouTube). A photon might want to be tele transported. that is a small step for technology, yet a enormous purpose for scifi.

Answer 5

Cerenkov radiation.