is jedi's lightsaber possible to make?

[fliguy84]

i've read from a star wars book that says a lightsaber contains a crystal that can concentrate light beam to form something like a pole, and thus a saber made out of light. can we make this happen?

and if it's possible, would you get the effect of a lightsaber hitting another lightsaber (sparks flying etc)? since light is mostly waves and photons, shouldn't it just go 'pass' through?

ps: i'm just excited from watching star wars ep3 trailer =)

 

[Vee]

Light cannot be contained that way.
Any "explanations" in the realm of fiction, for any cool imaginary stuff like that, is always going to be mumbo jumbo. A more "credible" sort of mumbo jumbo, would be an explanation that entails *energetic plasma contained in a powerful forcefield*. If it could be made, nuclear fusion powered of course, I suppose it would/could sort of handle and look like the lightsabers.

I doubt it's such a good idea though. I mean, what if the other guy brings a gun? :Q Real bullets fly a thousand times faster than the laser bolts from Star Wars guns, so there's not much chance to deflect anything with nimble saber play. With or without the Force.

 

[Tom]

bullets are easily deflected with existing technology.

 

[Gibsons]

Originally posted by: Tom
bullets are easily deflected with existing technology.

yeah but tanks and body armor aren't as sexy as a glowing sword.

 

[Appledrop]

Originally posted by: Vee
I doubt it's such a good idea though. I mean, what if the other guy brings a gun? :Q Real bullets fly a thousand times faster than the laser bolts from Star Wars guns, so there's not much chance to deflect anything with nimble saber play. With or without the Force.

:heart:

 

[Calin]

The light will escape on the other end of the lightsaber, unless you use a mirror. Anyway, one of the most interesting aspects in the upcoming optical microprocessors is that the light beams that intersect won't affect each other - this would be valid for lightsabers (they would pass thru each other easier that a hot knife thru air)
A force field that contain plasma? Possible, but the magnetic field must be shamelessly big, you could sense it (with a compass) from miles and miles.

 

[TuxDave]

Originally posted by: Azzy64

Originally posted by: Vee
I doubt it's such a good idea though. I mean, what if the other guy brings a gun? :Q Real bullets fly a thousand times faster than the laser bolts from Star Wars guns, so there's not much chance to deflect anything with nimble saber play. With or without the Force.

:heart:

You underestimate the power of the dark side...... mwahahahaha

 

[ahurtt]

There is a reason why Star Wars is classified as "Science Fiction / Fantasy."

 

[ssvegeta1010]

Originally posted by: Calin
A force field that contain plasma? Possible, but the magnetic field must be shamelessly big, you could sense it (with a compass) from miles and miles.

Then people with compasses can tell your coming before you hack them apart.

 

[JonB]

It's the "solid" nature of the "light sabre" that makes it so wrong. If you could position a mirror about 1 meter out from a handle and use it to reflect a laser beam back to the handle, then you could possibly create a "light sabre" that could cause some damage, but it would always pass over any object in its way, not bounce off like it had mass. Two light sabres would likewise pass through each other.

Even if the laser was at some resonant frequency between the handle and the reflecting mirror, it would never be anything but light. Energy, but no mass.

Then again, if the outer mirror was being held in position by a rigid (but flexible?) laser-proof shaft, then the laser could surround the shaft and it wouldn't be visible, but the laser could cut through objects, making a path for the rod. Now, we just need to make a rod like that, attach an exceedingly perfect mirror at the end, power a Megawatt laser from two D-Cells, and then make it retractable.

 

[Dravic]

hmmmm..


you always see light sabers retract. They dont just shut off.


maybe there is a high speed retractable device at the center of the "light" saber...

now stay with me

mabe there is a very highly concentrated fuel cell in the handle, (and its triggered by the right frequency only emitted by certain lifeforms [the force]) and a method to convert it into gas while emitting it into the air throughout the high speed shaft.

Now all you need to find is a way to power this special gas that you can super charge into some kind light emitting super hot "light" saber.

although the light from the charged gas would probably blind you first.... lol

 

[Howard]

Originally posted by: Vee
Light cannot be contained that way.
Any "explanations" in the realm of fiction, for any cool imaginary stuff like that, is always going to be mumbo jumbo. A more "credible" sort of mumbo jumbo, would be an explanation that entails *energetic plasma contained in a powerful forcefield*. If it could be made, nuclear fusion powered of course, I suppose it would/could sort of handle and look like the lightsabers.

I doubt it's such a good idea though. I mean, what if the other guy brings a gun? :Q Real bullets fly a thousand times faster than the laser bolts from Star Wars guns, so there's not much chance to deflect anything with nimble saber play. With or without the Force.

The guns don't shoot laser bolts.

 

[willfreund]

Its called a cathode tube with green /red tint

 

[Addis]

Wouldn't it be so much easier if we all got along, instead of trying to create weapons, we could be making babies.

 

[JonB]

I'm thinking it could be a nifty cake slicer. The icing wouldn't stick and get so damm messy.

 

[Tiamat]

Originally posted by: willfreund
Its called a cathode tube with green /red tint

Don't forget the blue!!

 

[mdchesne]

light saber? you have to be kidding, right?

first off, it's not just the crystal, but the unification of the force with oneself allows the user to actually control the energy. Second, the sparks and stuff you see are actually the effects of two concentrated forces colliding (i.e. Luke's force with vader's), not the actual light itself.

So in order for us to harness light itself in such a way, you need the force. Which is fictional and totally made up. So no, you cannot harness the power of a lightsaber unless you are one with a nonexistant force

do or do not, there is no try -yoda

 

[dbuttcheek69]

Originally posted by: Vee
Light cannot be contained that way.
Any "explanations" in the realm of fiction, for any cool imaginary stuff like that, is always going to be mumbo jumbo. A more "credible" sort of mumbo jumbo, would be an explanation that entails *energetic plasma contained in a powerful forcefield*. If it could be made, nuclear fusion powered of course, I suppose it would/could sort of handle and look like the lightsabers.

I doubt it's such a good idea though. I mean, what if the other guy brings a gun? :Q Real bullets fly a thousand times faster than the laser bolts from Star Wars guns, so there's not much chance to deflect anything with nimble saber play. With or without the Force.

yes but since light has no mass, it would never lose altitude, so in theory you could shoot him from 200 miles away before he even could see you with a telescope.

 

[DrPizza]

Originally posted by: dbuttcheek69

Originally posted by: Vee
Light cannot be contained that way.
Any "explanations" in the realm of fiction, for any cool imaginary stuff like that, is always going to be mumbo jumbo. A more "credible" sort of mumbo jumbo, would be an explanation that entails *energetic plasma contained in a powerful forcefield*. If it could be made, nuclear fusion powered of course, I suppose it would/could sort of handle and look like the lightsabers.

I doubt it's such a good idea though. I mean, what if the other guy brings a gun? :Q Real bullets fly a thousand times faster than the laser bolts from Star Wars guns, so there's not much chance to deflect anything with nimble saber play. With or without the Force.

yes but since light has no mass, it would never lose altitude, so in theory you could shoot him from 200 miles away before he even could see you with a telescope.

Since light has no mass, it would never stay at the same altitude either... it would follow a (more or less, ignoring relativistic factors) straight line. Planets are (more or less) spherical, not flat.

 

[ribbon13]

Come on now

Laser #1 & #2 into triangular prism #1
Laser #3 & #4 into triangular prism #2
Triangular prisms #1 & #2 into #3
Repeat.

repeat final prism like this where || is a one way mirrow and | is a mirror that will explode reaching a certain temperature releasing the focused beam all at once...
.\.
.<|----||-----|
./.


Surgical assassination from space.

 

[LASTGUY2GETPS2]

Wow! I was just going to ask the same question. I've been thinking of holding plasma in a magnetic field. Now aside from the power needed the plasma needs to be held under preassure in the handle. Diamond has the ability to withstand such pressure I think and its boiling point is around 4,200C. Now how hot would the plasma be. I would think we would want hydrogen plasma since it has the smallest radius. But does H plasma exist or is it just a proton? and is its temperature lower than the boiling point of diamond? There

 

[jackschmittusa]

Magnetic field containing plasma? I can't imagine how strong the field source would have to be to project a shaped mag field 3" (length of the light in a lightsabre?) from a point source. I imagine that as soon as it was activated every thing containing ferro-magnetic material and not bolted down would fly accross a room and attatch to it. Might be hard to hold it up with 500lb of iron and steel hanging on it. And that's assuming that you dodged everything while it was flying.

I also doubt that we will ever develop a power source small enough to fit into a hand that can generate enough energy to vaporize large objects instantly. Even if it were some kind of mini nuke, think of the thermal and radiation shielding that would be necessary.

 

[LASTGUY2GETPS2]

Originally posted by: jackschmittusa
Magnetic field containing plasma? I can't imagine how strong the field source would have to be to project a shaped mag field 3" (length of the light in a lightsabre?) from a point source. I imagine that as soon as it was activated every thing containing ferro-magnetic material and not bolted down would fly accross a room and attatch to it. Might be hard to hold it up with 500lb of iron and steel hanging on it. And that's assuming that you dodged everything while it was flying.

I also doubt that we will ever develop a power source small enough to fit into a hand that can generate enough energy to vaporize large objects instantly. Even if it were some kind of mini nuke, think of the thermal and radiation shielding that would be necessary.

Yeah...I guess this is all theoretical anyway...screw practicality!

 

[AnitaPeterson]

Originally posted by: JonB
I'm thinking it could be a nifty cake slicer. The icing wouldn't stick and get so damm messy.

The technology already exists... it's called string. Ever tried it?

 

[WoodenPupa]

well, speaking of diamonds, what if you had a solid diamond blade that was heated to like 10000 F. See, you hook it up to this AC adapter from Dell, that should get it hot enough. Of course, you're going to need some mean shielding to protect yourself from the heat, but I'm thinking this baby will slice right through anything it touches...as well as incinerate your environment in a huge radius as you walk with it.