In Star Wars they shoot lasers from cannons and guns but how come they are stopped by forcefields?
How can it be that lasers are light and the forcefields allow the ships to be visible but don't allow lasers to go through?
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4I'm pretty sure this is a dupe - blasters shoot plasma, not light. And even if they did shoot light, not all things react the same to the same wavelengths. Why can you pick up radio waves indoors when the doors are shut and the shades are drawn? – Robert Columbia Aug 06 '18 at 22:49
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The slow speed of blaster bolts (you can see them move) clearly shows that they aren't lasers, but rather streams of plasma. Which also explains why they glow - laser light is invisible except as it reflects off mist or dust. – Klaus Æ. Mogensen Aug 07 '18 at 08:04
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The very short answer is that cannons (turbolasers) and guns (blasters) in the Star Wars universe aren't firing lasers, they're firing energetic plasma. That plasma is deflected or dissipated by shields which are generally tuned to keep it out.
Shields come in a variety of flavours; deflectors, ray shields, personal shields, planetary shields, etc. Their mechanics and operation are discussed in the Force Awakens Visual Dictionary. They tend to either deflect/absorb the energy or scatter/dissipate it.
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