"Thats a yes! HAHAHAHA!
NX Class
Ok. First some comments on real world physics before somebody fails a test.
The whole "For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction" thing always holds. It doesn't matter how something got accelerated. There is something else that was pushed back in the process.
In space you aren't standing on the ground to transfer momentum to it. So you've got straight up momentum conservation.
That means if you fire something that weights 1/10,000th of the ships weight at 100,000m/s the ship, if it started out still, would now be heading off at 10 m/s. Even worse is if you fire off axis, which will make you spin. Real world Navy ships have the advantage of being braced in water.
I think an advantage of plasma is that instead of just relying on kinetic energy, which will knock you around, you have energy stored chemically or electrically. I presume the plasma in question is related to the mythical "electroplasma" used to power the ship's systems and should be incredibly energy dense. So you fire a much smaller mass of the plasma possibly using the exact same mechanism as a rail or coilgun. It goes faster increasing the odds of a hit, but due to having much less mass you don't experience nearly as much kick. It could also be harder for nav deflectors to affect.
Next on the hull. Polarized can mean a number of things. You're thinking of optical polarization, however there is also electric and magnetic polarization. (And probably other sci fi polarizations) A number of present day materials become much harder when polarized (in fact some liquids can suddenly turn into solids). So I'm guessing that was what they had in mind. The hull gets polarized electromagnetically and suddenly becomes a lot harder and is better able to absorb energy.
Saying "Hull polarizers offline" would make more sense and be more correct, but I'm guessing they don't reprimand people for shortening the phrase while under fire from an alien vessel.
The whole "For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction" thing always holds. It doesn't matter how something got accelerated. There is something else that was pushed back in the process.
In space you aren't standing on the ground to transfer momentum to it. So you've got straight up momentum conservation.
That means if you fire something that weights 1/10,000th of the ships weight at 100,000m/s the ship, if it started out still, would now be heading off at 10 m/s. Even worse is if you fire off axis, which will make you spin. Real world Navy ships have the advantage of being braced in water.
I think an advantage of plasma is that instead of just relying on kinetic energy, which will knock you around, you have energy stored chemically or electrically. I presume the plasma in question is related to the mythical "electroplasma" used to power the ship's systems and should be incredibly energy dense. So you fire a much smaller mass of the plasma possibly using the exact same mechanism as a rail or coilgun. It goes faster increasing the odds of a hit, but due to having much less mass you don't experience nearly as much kick. It could also be harder for nav deflectors to affect.
Next on the hull. Polarized can mean a number of things. You're thinking of optical polarization, however there is also electric and magnetic polarization. (And probably other sci fi polarizations) A number of present day materials become much harder when polarized (in fact some liquids can suddenly turn into solids). So I'm guessing that was what they had in mind. The hull gets polarized electromagnetically and suddenly becomes a lot harder and is better able to absorb energy.
Saying "Hull polarizers offline" would make more sense and be more correct, but I'm guessing they don't reprimand people for shortening the phrase while under fire from an alien vessel.