Star Trek: Miniaturization, Energy Storage, and Firepower

[Lucky]

TOS: The Man Trap
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TNG: Hide and Q
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I was thinking about Man Trap a while ago, and remembered the blast the almost got Kirk, and then I remembered the shot by Riker in Hide and Q.

The block hit in Man Trap seems to have been about the same volume as Kirk.

The stone shot by Riker seems to have been about the size of Worf.

The weapon used in an attempt to kill Kirk was about the size of a Glock.

The weapon Riker used was about the size of a Zippo Lighter.

So between TOS and TNG the United Federation of Planets seems to have miniaturized its weapons technology while keeping or increasing firepower despite seemingly taking a less militaristic stance.

Might this imply that everything got smaller while maintaining at least the same level of performance?

[Mike DiCenso]

There is also "The Return of the Archons" [TOS1]:







The phasers make the hole in a matter of a few seconds and you can see on that last image after Landru computer has self-destructed, Kirk and Spock stepping through the hole they made to give a sense of scale. That wall is about a foot thick easily and the hole almost 1.85 meters at it's widest point.
-Mike