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by Tondoteottotote on February 10th, 2005

Tondoteottotote

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What would it take to build a lightsaber, as seen in the Star Wars movies?

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Answers. 22 helpful answers below.

  • by Sandor on August 15th, 2006

    Sandor

    So many of you are just like "No. It's impossible! Laser beams aren't solid and won't stop at a certain length! Blech! Blech! Blech!" and the like. A few are more reasonable and they realize that it isn't a LIGHT sabre but a plasma sabre. But then they make claims about the impossibility of having a power supply that produces the power required. I say NONSENSE! The only reason humans even think of a gigawatt as a large power is because of how pathetic their own bodies and their inventions are to date. A gigawatt is nothing. Suppose the little star wars power cell is filled with antimatter at a density of 20 grams per cubic centimeter. More exotic things may be possible than that, too. A tiny black hole would either be too heavy to wield or too short-lived (200 ton black holes only last a second or so, during which they release all that mass/energy in a huge fireball), so scratch that off. Maybe it's 200000 tons, which would be even worse. I forget. One gram of antimatter will yield 180 terajoules of energy. How many kilowatt-hours is that, I ask? As for plasma, our problems with dealing with such things stems from our equally pathetic devices. We can't produce magnetic fields of tens or hundreds of teslas because our best electrical conductor that works over liquid nitrogen temperature is silver. And superconductors break down in high magnetic fields just as they do in high temperatures. In fact, the plot of its superconductive region is an ellipse when you have magnetic field on the y axis and temperature on x - inside the ellipse it's superconducting. But carbon nanotubes have a billion times the electrical conductivity. And unlike superconductors, their high conductivity doesn't stop once the magnetic field reaches some critical value of a few teslas. It would be very easy to produce a huge magnetic field to contain plasma with technology that is just a little outside our manufacturing capabilities. No one has made a nanotube longer than microscopic. Now, the 'sabre' would still not be so sharply defined in its boundaries as in the movies, but it would definitely be possible to shape it into something that wouldn't destroy everything all around it (the wielder included) and would be useful as some sort of bladelike weapon. And the magnetic fields of two such weapons would interact. Although I don't believe it would be possible to form the fields into being such a nice solid wall, and for the swords to bounce off each other like metal swords. Physical objects can't pass through each other because of the Pauli exclusion principle, but that is not relevant here. More likely than not the two sword wielders would have their swords ripped from their hands when they got anywhere near each other, and the swords would cling together, if not collide with enough force to destroy them and release the massive amount of energy they store inside (the Star Wars movie would sure end early). Magnetic fields have to obey Maxwell's equations and you can't just make a sharp wall of magnetic fields over an arbitrary shape. The plus side is that magnetic fields actually don't interact with each other per se, but rather the objects that create them. So we wouldn't be talking about the field from one sword interacting with the field of the other, we would be talking about the field from one sword interacting with THE OTHER SWORD ITSELF. Darth Vader had better hope his artificial limbs don't have any magnetic metals in them... of course oxygen is diamagnetic and as water contains oxygen and is the primary consitutent of human bodies, the wielder himself might be affected in a very negative way. But not necessarily. Perhaps it could be properly engineered.

    One thing is for sure - the field would stop bullets - by a process known as magnetic dampening. Basically a high speed metal projectile gets currents induced in it at a cost to its kinetic energy and thus slows down - and so lead bullets would just fall to the ground dead when they get anywhere near.

    Anyway, the flip side is that the sort of technology that would be necessary to construct this weapon would make for a much more powerful one with a more intelligent design than to try to reinvent the sword. You have to admit, a one-gigawatt laser would be more effective than a hot sword of plasma that you actually have to physically poke someone with. If you have all that power to play with, why make a short range weapon, and why one that requires your puny human strength behind it to drive it? I imagine projecting a grid of pencil thin beams over a wide angle, too closely spaced to dodge, however fast and nimble your Jedi opponent may be. The very prerequisites of the light sabre would make it quite obsolete.

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  • by Glenn Blaylock on July 9th, 2005

    Glenn Blaylock

    As portrayed in the movies, it would be impossible to make a lighsaber. Others have pointed out the problem of a laser beam going on forever rather than terminating at a specific length. However, there is another problem. Light has no mass or substance. Therefore, a beam of light would be incapable of deflecting another beam of light. So, there would be no blocking of other lightsaber blades with your own nor would a beam of light be able to stop a blaster bolt. This is basic physics of a level that I don't think that we will be able to find a way around. I can't say for certain though. Who knows what discoveries we will make in the future. However, according to the laws of physics as we understand them today, lightsabers are quite impossible.

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  • by neoepiphany on June 20th, 2005

    neoepiphany

    It would take a few advances in technology.

    A lightsaber is essentially a laser. While we can make lasers--without too much difficulty--we can't make them do the things that lightsabers do. For one, we can't make them abruptly stop at sword-length.

    In a few years, though, who knows? Technology is truly an amazing thing.

    For a detailed look at light-sabers, how they work, and some great photos of lightsabers in action, visit http://www.howstuffworks.com/lightsaber.htm It has a terrific cross-section of a lightsaber that might give you a few ideas.

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  • by spacebug on December 19th, 2007

    spacebug

    I'd go with the laser approach, A laser beam shone through a conical lens, also known as an axicon, will be focused into a line of finite length. The laser radiation doesnt stop at the end of the line of course but it spreads out quickly after the end and so stops cutting. This would alleviate some of the power supply problem, as a less powerfull laser could be used and focused to cutting intensity along a very narrow focal line. The beam still wont bounce off things, but a nimble dodge and counter attack would be just as effective as a parry or block. If you really wanted a defensive element you could give the combatants a highly reflective shield made of ceramic or high temperature metal.The blade would probably be visible as long as the was air, as intense enough light will scatter visibly off even the tiniest dust and moisture particles. Biggest problem I can think of is the length of the blade, I've not done the math so I'm not sure how far the focual line can be made to reach.

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  • by Jack Lallathin on November 21st, 2005

    Jack Lallathin

    My theory is that the lightsaber would be a type of forced energy weapon that uses a contament field that runs from the mid section of the handel to the emiter it is then tuned to allow a set fequency of plasma particals to pass through it but keeping a majority of the particals contained within the field thus giving it the ability to cut through objects and to keep its sword length apperance.

    When we look at a lightsaber the color of the blade is the particals being expelled from the field. The inner light or core of the blade is always white and are the particals that are not tuned to escape from the field.

    The Jedi use naturally occuring crystals to intencify a laser beam to the point that it super heats and creats plasma the Sith use artifically created crystals that produce generally higher forms of plasma thus the Sith sabers generlly have a much larger power cell to create a reaction from thier crystals.

    When a pair of sabers collide it is mearly the fields that are colliding with each other.

    The lenth of the blade is set within the standard sword lenth to keep the field from degrading to the point of collaps the non expelled plasma particals are set to rotate back to the powercell thus enabling the lightsaber to retain most of the power in it's cell.

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  • by Kayrin Marino on October 27th, 2005

    Kayrin Marino

    It would take a sufficient power supply, correct aliegnment of some sort of non-magnetic field, and right configuration of plasma density. As we all know (OR SHOULD KNOW) the energy that consisted of the blade for a lightsaber in not laser light. the reasoning behind this is that:

    1. Laser light is not visible to the naked eye. Although with the correct lense the light can be governed to the distance one required while retaining it's power, the focal point (and just below it) would have the true cutting ability.

    2. When used against a reflective surface, you would probally fry your self or some one else.

    3. Laser light cannot reflect other light. Regardless of it is of the same intensity or not.

    That is where plasma comes into play. Plasma is the fourth state of matter after gas. Plasma can be produced to be hotter then the core of the sun, or into sub zero temps.

    Now, here comes the tricky part. Plasma will not bind to it's self. Because of it's density, it dissipates. Also the heat is something to be reconed with. All this is workable up tp the point of a containment field. The containment field could not be of a magnetic nature. Think of it like this, you have a plasma lightsaber and I throw a magnet at you. The field for the plasma becomes distorted due to the introduction of another magnetic entity and you fry. If a containment field could be made that had no magnetic influence, the hard parts over.

    Then there is just the small problem of a power source. In theory, a crystal could produce the power needed (since it is an unending power source) but to harness the energy from a crystal is, in these times, not possible. One theory is to resonate the crystal at a certain frequency thus producing energy.
    I believe that one day, though not pratical, the tech. for such a weapon will be accessable. Not in our life time though.

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  • by Jack Wallace on December 19th, 2007

    Jack Wallace

    The Force.

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  • by Brawl on July 21st, 2008

    Brawl

    youd need a brain, a very knowligable brain

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  • by star wars fanatic264 on April 7th, 2009

    star wars fanatic264

    well acctually i have been on the set of star wars 3 because my grandfather is very close friends with george lucas and they use real toy light sabers but they fill them up with these special glowsticks and use computer effects to glow them up even more for the dramatic scenes like when anakin vs obi wan on mustufar so yes you are able to make them but they will never acctually be up to movie scale with out special effects

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  • by Matt Marshall on August 10th, 2005

    Matt Marshall

    Plasma and lasers, impossible unfeasable and overall unpractical... plasma creates loads of heat, and lasers are constrained to only one amplitude of light... i cant believe the most plausible explanation was has been lost by most... a few years ago a scientist came up with a theory regarding the possible creation of lightsabers... he verified the existence of something called hard and soft light.... he had a whole bunch of mathematical equations and all that stuff... i dont understand it, but from what i can tell the lightsaber emits hard light up the center of what you would see in a lightsaber, the primarily white part... and then when it reaches its apex at the top as focused by the crystals, it flows back down as soft light down the sides, partly creating the "glowing effect" that a lightsaber has and with "unknown technology" i speculate the lightsaber reabsorbs the energy from the soft light and and transfers it to the battery which is why it does not run out of power unless it cuts something... this loop of immense light energy is constrained by a magnetic field, which is why it cannot cut through magnetically sealed doors, other lightsabers... this would create no heat around it, its just highly focused light and energy... and why it would cut, ever put an ant under a magnifying glass? its not hot, from your standpoint, unless you get in the way... also blasters are not lasers, they are particles of energy shot through a type of gas (usually tibanna gas) and the light seen is burnoff of oxygen from the energy. the lightsaber with its magentic field can block this energy and... well you know the rest... so there, thats what a lightsaber is... or the best explanation i have ever heard...

    this is the theory that works best for me, i would hope it works for u

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  • by Superboy171 on January 9th, 2008

    Superboy171

    First of all a healthy mind knows that nothing is impossible. The world of physics is a very complicated realm. And will likely never be completly mastered by man. I would like to point out that there are many forms of science that we as of yet still do not understand.

    I don't imagine that anyone will ever build a REAL working lightsaber. Like Sandor said in his first post. Such a device is an impractile use for the technology that would be necessary to create such a weapon. And yet as an imaginative thinker, and an avid fan of science fiction, I put my creative understanding to work on helping me to suspend my disbelief in order to enjoy something like lightsabers. So for anyone who wants to do the same I offer this.

    1: A Power Source, it would not be too far fetched to imagine that with the ability to harness the power of gravity, you could create a battery that would be nearly inexhaustable for performing such a task, generate a beam of energy as powerful as what a lightsaber is supposed to be, and that the same dynamo that produces the gravity energy will also bend it's beam in on itslef.

    2: The Colored Light, you can then imagine that the crystal's mentioned in the stories are special luminescient rocks that create a bright colorful light when a particular type of enegy is passed through them i.e. the gravitational energy. I would also imagine that the gravity field it creates keeps the light from escaping.

    3: The Hilt, I would imagine the hilt to be composed of a unique alloy and outfitted with gyros to compensate for the immense weight of the gravitational energy source.

    4: The Solidness,
    a)Then comes the old faithful force answer. Light is not solid largely due to the fact that photons, like neutrons, do not join together the way that atoms do. Perhaps a Jedi could be using his power of the force to join the photons together.
    b) It could also be some strange function of the the gravity manipulating energysource to deflect whatever it comes into contact with.

    Lastly as to dispel the worries of why this technology would not be better used for something else, I will reply by saying that perhaps no one save the lightsabers original designers understood the technology. Except maybe emporer palpatine who used his keen intelect, and understanding of the lightsabers powersource to build the deathstar.

    That's what I try to imagine. If nothing else it serves my puny brain as a good expanation.

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  • by Saddened on July 27th, 2005

    Saddened

    this is all conjecture, but what if lightsabres are in technical terms 'plasma-sabres' .they use plasma derived from ionizing the elements in the air and magnets position in the handle to 'sculpt' the plasma into a sword (plasma cutters are a perfect if not miniture form of this). the magnetic field would cause the swords to repel each other (due to polarity)... or attact. and being that magnets and plasma both have been known to bent light, and possibly reflect it. i don't know - but it works for me.

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  • by Lordd_V on February 8th, 2011

    Lordd_V

    1 word, 1 acronym: Special. FX.

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  • by roshdenor on November 6th, 2010

    roshdenor

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  • by roshdenor on November 6th, 2010

    roshdenor

    may i say many of you have the wrong ideas here.... the beam ok let say this.. they use lasers to cut at extreme heat right so imagine this take your colored crystal right of any color you like. basically lock your crystal in a fully mirrored encasement with too small holes at each end one of which you shine your laser of cutting heat and the other the relayed and multi-billion time reflected laser beam shoots out not if were talking about a white laser then yes we can get any color but then comes the issue you cant see a laser so what do you do?
    i read something the other day and some Japanese company is working on a plasma emitter to have a cleaner metal cutting / rock and diamond cutting system.... we can see plasma. so image a white plasma beam shined through this crystal with the reflective encasement..already hot enough to cut so here we are as the light shines through this crystal is gets stronger and as such the plasma gets hotter as well. now as the plasma (already passed through the crystal ) moves on through it needs a magnetic charge ok so imagine our beam passing between or through a series of capacitors and superconductors essentially creating a magnetic field. but then the "sword" would be drawn to others so strongly that no man could wield it around another.. ok ok so at the tip of the Hilt we have only on one side an extremely strong magnet of the opposite polarization of the emitting magnetic field basically forming a complete circuit this in theory would prevent such magnetic effect with other swords.so at this point a beam would extend out basically as far as the power your able to put out and return to the opposite polarized diode and would in someways create a solid blade effect when coming in contact with most any surface now combating with someone holding another sword would most likely be to guys dodging swings at each other because im not sure if the two blades would stop each other or not. lastly is the power this is where i have my issues but i do have my theories what if we could use a form of nuclear radiation to power this or find a way to access the endless energy that is held within crystals who know but the power would last much longer because "in theory" the saber wouldnt lose any power unless you were cutting something other wise the "blade" would basically continue to loop around itself until the fields emitters are without power and then the energy would act as any power does and would move to the nearest conductor being the hilt aka the opposite polarized diode. (think of lightning .. it moves to the closest conductor such as lightning rods and lightning as in many ways a plasma) there for making a lightsaber like seen in the movies very very possible.

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  • by killerkiller on January 6th, 2010

    killerkiller

    ...http://www.cs.vu.nl/~dick/LightSaber/LightSaber.html...
    ...no coment

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  • by Master Ryan on June 8th, 2005

    Master Ryan

    This is interesting. Most of these statements i have red are very one sided. first, you all seem to look at what is not possiable, when infact what is not possiable, there is a loophole. now i have lost you.
    I am an EL trainer fan, i use the EL lightsabers(look at parksabers.com or rlsasabers.com or lightechindustries.com) these are pricy but should be very good. they are not real lightsabers, but in fact weapons, unbeakable and very bright. now, how to build a lightsaber from starwars.
    first is lucas really teh first to have the idea of fighting with a laser weapon, in sord form? so forget the sueing.
    second, what is a lightsaber. it is basicaly a 40 inch foot beam of light, unbreakable, razor sharp, and very hot. also can difelct lasers.
    now what of that is inmposible.
    we use lasers in suergery all the time, it cuase less to 0 amount of blood.
    now we are talking about somthing much longer.
    why not just take a really strong white light bulb and build a really strong falshlight...? well for one there is no beam and it wont kill anything. so, lets take the light and consatratet it, making a like a whit laser pointer. no pain, and still not much of a beam(though one may show) so in therory you can run this white light though a cryistal of the color you want befor you consontrait it. tehn you have a colored ing and a half light spot. but no beam. why...? no if you use mirrors tot he consaontait it, you are sending about 10000000000000000 beams of light back and forth though the cryistal and hot the little hole. thence causeing the light to be send out at different times. of course you can tell the diff because light goes so fast. but, then it looks like 10000000000000000000000 different spects making one beam. now you have about 10 feet long beam, maybe shoter. so just take a maggnafiyng glass or too, and then, put it infront of the beamit will make it bigger, but smaller in leanth. so now you have a beam coming out of your well deacaratedandle. as far as heat, i guess you need to use one of those lights they use to keep lizards warm, think around that. the beam is the hardest part. i have not tryed this yet, i am working on it. DO NOT SHOOT IT DOWN, but insed find ways to make it better, post it up, i want to hear it.

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  • by D-A-N on June 2nd, 2005

    D-A-N

    As you know, in the star wars films the electric bolt coming out of the lightsabre is computer generated, so it woul be impossible to make.

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  • by wesley chiu on July 15th, 2005

    wesley chiu

    a lot of people assume stuff about lightsabers. click on the link to find out how they work (if they could be made)

    http://www.thelightsaber.com/IndexFolder/index2.htm

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  • by Thom64 on April 14th, 2005

    Thom64

    If it were possible to build a blade out of light, the problem of power remains. Any beam-type weapon capable of dispersing or vaporizing matter instantly on contact would probably require millions of watts of power. In Star Wars, they have convenient little powerpacks about the size of a D-cell battery (which power blasters and lightsabers) that generate enough energy to melt tons of steel-like metal (blast doors)... a feat that would probably require many thousands of kilowatt hours of electricity. Nobody has yet imagined how to build such a powerpack or anything remotely close (several orders of magnitude) to that power capacity/density.

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  • by Pointeman1 on February 10th, 2005

    Pointeman1

    As they work in the Star Wars movies, not much chance of that because of a basic contradiction: Coherent laser light once produced will go in a straight line, on and on unless stopped by a blocking substance or object. In the movie weapon, the beam is about a meter long and then suddenly terminates!

    However. It is possible to build a reasonable facsimile: Using a telescoping rode (like the power radio car antenna) with the shaft of this rod square in the center of the handle; the laser is beamed from the handle in parallel with the telescoping rode; At the tip of the telescoping rod would be a quartz crystal with in the form of a triangle with one point forward and in-line with the rod and the handle; The beam is triggered and then bounces off the mirror-like quartz crystal point, making 2 bounce reflections within the crystal; The beam is sent up one side of the rod and the crystal pointe send it back down the opposite side. Now you have a double cutting edge for the beam.

    The returning beam his a divergent crystal that now dissipates the beam; or it would go through several of these divergent crystals; or another material but the idea would be to diffuse and disipate the beam on it's return to the handle.

    You wouldn't be able to make thrusts with such a weapon but it would be devasting as a slashing weapon.

    That's one way it could be done and I'm sure there are lots more ways.

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  • by killerkiller on January 6th, 2010

    killerkiller

    ...http://www.cs.vu.nl/~dick/LightSaber/LightSaber.html...

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