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Physics Behind The Lightsaber - Can it become true

 
 Discussion by Amadeus with 40 Replies.
 Last Update: April 14, 2013, 10:34 pm (View Latest)
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May 19 Star Wars III will on the cinema. There is a weapon called lightsaber. It's a sword which is made lazer. And there is no steel. What do you thing about this. Can it be tru one they. Will somebody made it one day.

Tue May 17, 2005    Reply    New Discussion   


I think you need to double check on that - light saber wasn't supposed to be made of laser - the concept behind it was Plasma or Heated Gas.

According to classic Star Wars texts, the light saber was supposed to be a shaft of pure energy a couple of meters long.

Here's why it can't be made of laser: Laser will not be visible to the naked eye - the way light sabers appeared, unless the air was filled with a thick layer of dust particles. It would never show up in empty space. Plus, you cannot limit the range of a laser beam to a meter or so. The beam would keep travelling in a more or less straight line till the energy dissipates or the beam gets scattered and reflected by some obstruction in it's path.

On the other hand - even though present technology doesn't permit it - you could ideally condense plasma to contain itslef within certain pre-fixed dimensions. But this would lead to such intense heating of the sword shaft itself that the bearer would turn his own hands to pure charcoal in a matter of seconds. Also - even though plasma CAN cut through metal - that whole concept of plasma sword blocking another plasma sword is completely imporbable. :)

Tue May 17, 2005    Reply    New Discussion   

i read some star wars books that took place after the movie-story and read some more. the lightsaber is a beam of pure energy, but i see no way how to of those swords could block eachother. maybe if the energy keeps moving around, which makes it a kind of chainsaw with energy instead of metal. if some one will find a way to make a real lightsaber one day(they? :) just kidding) i would be happy to buy one for quite some money :)

Tue May 17, 2005    Reply    New Discussion   

QUOTE

Here's why it can't be made of laser: Laser will not be visible to the naked eye - the way light sabers appeared, unless the air was filled with a thick layer of dust particles


Sorry to get nerdy.. but...

If a Photon strikes an outer orbiting electron around a neucleus with the exact amount of energy (frequency) to elevate that one electron by one energy level, then that is what will happn.

The photon will be absorbed, nd that electron will jump to a higher energy level.

Then because of quantum physics (i dont pretend to understand this part) the electron must instantly lose its ener, and fall back to its origonal energy level, giving off the ecess energy as a photon, of exact frequenct that it absorbed, in a random direction.

Im not certain, but i think the frequcny required to do this to a Nitrogen attom (the air is approx 70% nirtrogen) is a very nice shade of Green (visible light)

Have you ever seen that photo of the green laser powerfull enough to put a dot on the moon ????

ALSO, have a look at the green laser pen at thinkgeek.com. ( i want one sooo bad ! )

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CLICK THIS LINK... the nerds amungst you will NOT b dissapointed....
http://www.thinkgeek.com/gadgets/lights/5a47/action/21033ff/
http://www.thinkgeek.com/gadgets/lights/5a47/action/2103408/
http://www.thinkgeek.com/gadgets/lights/5a47/action/21046eb/
http://www.thinkgeek.com/gadgets/lights/5a47/action/210671c/
http://www.thinkgeek.com/gadgets/lights/5a47/action/2104b4d/
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my nerd sence is tingleing !!

buy me one of those, and you will have a fiend for life.

Wed May 18, 2005    Reply    New Discussion   


Hi, ther is a special this week on this site. All you need to know about StarWars. :)

Wed May 18, 2005    Reply    New Discussion   

yeah i think there neva gonna come out with sumthing like that

Wed May 18, 2005    Reply    New Discussion   

Man...I want a lightsaber too. I think the biggest issue with building them is not the laser, or the plasma, or any other such part of the beam: its the power. Power storage and batteries have hard to improve physical constraints. The power draw for something like a lightsaber would be tremendous. Putting enough power for the thing into a small and light hilt is....well...less believable than the blade.

Which sucks, cause like I said...I want a lightsaber too.

Not to mention how long an ipod or something would go if you had those type of batteries to power it...heh heh.

Wed May 18, 2005    Reply    New Discussion   

by the tim light sword things are invented, we will have invented matter-anti-mater reactors...

Clean energy, (matter + antimatter = 2 photons)
many hundred thousands of times more energy per KG than weapons grade Uranium..

And if they can move the enterprise at warp 9.9.. im sure they could generate enough enegy to slice you up nicely.

would now be a good time to mention that personally, i think star wars sucks ? LOL.

Wed May 18, 2005    Reply    New Discussion   

A lightsaber strikes me as much more buildable than a blaster seeing as we already have lasers that can cut things. It would just be a matter of broadening laser technology to work with other types of energy than visible-spectrum light. Granted that wouldn't be easy, but it's probably doable.

Fri May 20, 2005    Reply    New Discussion   

Bleh, I’ve always thought that the light saber was lazer… um… because it’s a common thing used in… sci fi movies. Not that I know anything about lazer, but all my life whenever I thought “lazer” I thought light saber.

There goes my myth… :)

Fri May 20, 2005    Reply    New Discussion   

QUOTE (Amadeus)

May 19 Star Wars III will on the cinema. There is a weapon called lightsaber. It's a sword which is made lazer. And there is no steel. What do you thing about this. Can it be tru one they. Will somebody made it one day.
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I honestly don't think that would be possibe, and if it could, it wouldnbe used for military purposes, since in real life, the blasters would easily annihate them.

Sat May 21, 2005    Reply    New Discussion   

Yup... what his name is correct... laser is impossible... for one, it is light it cant just stop at a certain distant assuming the fact the laser itself could hold such length of power to slice people up in two... Yes dragong... you were probably misinform but just cuz laser is probably the closest guess many people have...

I say it would not be possible to emulate a real light saber... no way would a little small handle like that able to generate enough energy.. and thats not including the fact stated at the beginning... How would you be able to customize the beam to different lengths you want...??? its just impossible... sorry ..

Chin chin..

Thu May 26, 2005    Reply    New Discussion   

Mmm, lasers. Well, as much as I love lasers, I will refrain from discussing them since everyone else has done an excellent job of proving why it is impossible for a lightsaber to be made of a laser.

On the other hand, if we consider building a lightsaber out of plasma, there are just as many problems. Basically, nuclear fusion reactors use this principle to operate. A plasma is confined in an area and heated up until the atoms start fusing together. The hardest part of this is confining the plasma. Once the plasma touches anything (i.e. the walls of the container it's in) it loses heat and the reaction stops. There are other factors involved, but I'll save that discussion for later. So the best way we have at the moment is to confine this plasma using magnetic fields. This has its own set of problems though. My nuclear professor compared it to trying to hold jello using elastic bands. There are certain schemes that have been set up to get around this, but all require giant elaborate equipment. It would be EXTREMELY difficult (I'd say impossible, but sometimes science surprises me) to find a way to confine a lightsaber-size shaft of plasma using only a little handle.

Fri May 27, 2005    Reply    New Discussion   

Say you actually could generate a laser beam of that concentration, why would the beam stop at three feet in length? Wouldn't it just go on till it naturally started to gradually dissipate very far away from the source?

Sat May 28, 2005    Reply    New Discussion   

Not needed
Physics Behind The Lightsaber

Replying to miCRoSCoPiC^eaRthLinG

That is not needed, instead of a chainsaw like energy orbitration, you need only a high frequency of light rays that can seem as matter, yet arent, and can cut through such things as steel.

-reply by Michael

Thu May 8, 2008    Reply    New Discussion   

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