B Can Lasers Really Create a Functional Light Saber?

  • Thread starter Thread starter pete94857
  • Start date Start date
  • Tags Tags
    Force components
Click For Summary
Using the inverse square law, it is theoretically possible to create a light saber-like effect using thousands of micro lasers arranged side by side to form a coherent beam. However, this approach would not produce a true light saber as depicted in movies. The discussion highlights that while a single laser beam can be extended infinitely with diminishing strength, this method is overly complex. For more practical applications of coordinated light sources, concepts like phased array radar and Huygen’s wavelets are suggested. The thread concludes that the initial premise is based on a misunderstanding of laser technology.
pete94857
Messages
99
Reaction score
9
TL;DR
Mirco lasers, inverse square law.
I believe using the inverse square law it would be possible to produce a light saber made from lasers. By placing thousands of micro laser side by side a limited length beam could be formed but the combined energy would produce a seemingly single beam with the total energy accumulated from all the micro lasers.
 
Physics news on Phys.org
That won’t make a light saber (if by that you mean something like from the movies). Arrange your lasers properly and we can get a single laser beam extending out to infinity and weakening according to the inverse square law, but that’s just a single laser done in an unnecessarily complicated and difficult way.

For a more interesting application of multiple coordinated light sources, you might try reading about how phased array radar beams are steered, and also learn about “Huygen’s wavelets” which will be the general principle behind all such arrangements of light sources.

This thread is closed, as it based on a misunderstanding.
 
  • Like
Likes pete94857, DaveE, berkeman and 1 other person
Thread 'The rocket equation, one more time'
I already posted a similar thread a while ago, but this time I want to focus exclusively on one single point that is still not clear to me. I just came across this problem again in Modern Classical Mechanics by Helliwell and Sahakian. Their setup is exactly identical to the one that Taylor uses in Classical Mechanics: a rocket has mass m and velocity v at time t. At time ##t+\Delta t## it has (according to the textbooks) velocity ##v + \Delta v## and mass ##m+\Delta m##. Why not ##m -...

Similar threads

  • · Replies 9 ·
Replies
9
Views
2K
  • · Replies 11 ·
Replies
11
Views
3K
  • · Replies 1 ·
Replies
1
Views
976
Replies
12
Views
3K
  • · Replies 14 ·
Replies
14
Views
2K
  • · Replies 25 ·
Replies
25
Views
4K
Replies
14
Views
1K
  • · Replies 3 ·
Replies
3
Views
4K
  • · Replies 51 ·
2
Replies
51
Views
4K
  • · Replies 1 ·
Replies
1
Views
2K