Can Light Saber deflect bullets?

[fanieh]

Light saber can deflect laser fires from soldiers or aircraft.. can they also deflect bullets from submachine gun or aircraft fire?

 

[Drakkith]

I'd expect them to vaporize bullets instead.

 

[Ryan_m_b]

In the films whenever a light saber meets solid matter it tends to melt right through it, a bullet passing through would likely be melted or vaporised. But given how the Star Wars universe works projectile weapons are unlikely to be an effective anti-Jedi weapon since they could presumably use the force to nudge the bullets off target or even stop them fully Neo style.

 

[fanieh]

The jedi nudges the laser fire by blocking each of them with the light saber.. so I wonder how the jedi can see the path of each bullets and nudge each of them... are there any scene where the jedi can nudge submachine gun fire with the light saber by hitting each of the bullets?

 

[Noisy Rhysling]

The jedi nudges the laser fire by blocking each of them with the light saber.. so I wonder how the jedi can see the path of each bullets and nudge each of them... are there any scene where the jedi can nudge submachine gun fire with the light saber by hitting each of the bullets?

The Jedi's reflexes are such that they can just the path of a laser bolt so as to be in the right position to deflect it.

 

[Jonathan Scott]

The jedi nudges the laser fire by blocking each of them with the light saber.. so I wonder how the jedi can see the path of each bullets and nudge each of them... are there any scene where the jedi can nudge submachine gun fire with the light saber by hitting each of the bullets?

The idea is that the Force enables its users to anticipate future events to some extent, so they know where to block even before the shot is fired.

 

[newjerseyrunner]

The jedi nudges the laser fire by blocking each of them with the light saber.. so I wonder how the jedi can see the path of each bullets and nudge each of them... are there any scene where the jedi can nudge submachine gun fire with the light saber by hitting each of the bullets?

The idea is that the Force enables its users to anticipate future events to some extent, so they know where to block even before the shot is fired.

That. They don't see the laser blast coming, they sense it ahead of time with the force. That's why Obi Wan had Luke practice blindfolded. If I remember right, someone uses their lightsaber to clear a piece of scrap metal away. It sliced to it through, but also tossed it, implying to me that it provides at least some transfer of momentum.

 

[SciFiWriterGuy]

Honestly, they keep changing their minds on this one, so it's hard to establish a true canon answer. First, it was lightsabers could cut through anything but another lightsaber blade. Then it was anything but a lightsaber and special alloys. Then they added "charged" metals. Then, with Episode 7, they went totally nuts and seemingly ignored a lot of their own rules.

I think, however, we can look at this as a question involving more of a factor of work over time. Consider in Episode 1 where a saber is used to cut through a heavy blast door. It took time and force to make the blade cut, and even then it did so slowly. But we also see lightsabers rip through light metals like tissue. Using that as a benchmark, we can conclude that a bullet would most likely be vaporized outright, but if you dropped, say, a bank vault door on a Jedi, that saber might not do them any good.

 

[rkolter]

The light saber would either vaporize or melt the bullets. Light sabers seem to be pretty good at cutting through most things that aren't too dense or thick.

But this does bring up an interesting thought:

Jedi use their light sabers as shields when deflecting projectiles - they will stand in front of a blaster and deflect the blast. But Jedi tend to side-step physical objects thrown at them, or stop using their light sabers and use the force to change the path of the incoming object.

There are machine guns that can throw bullets with a separation measured in inches - if you fired one at a Jedi and they naturally try to use their light saber as a shield, they would melt the bullets, but the bullet material would still be coming toward them (!). It's possible, maybe, to defeat a Jedi by having a mix of people firing blasters and submachine guns at them. They can't help but use their light sabers as shields, and they can't concentrate to re-route the bullets.

In the end, momentum always wins.

 

[Noisy Rhysling]

A .50 cal. Browning machine gun can put 82 pounds of lead in the air in one minute, if you want to abuse the barrel. Jedi be dead eye.

 

[SciFiWriterGuy]

but the bullet material would still be coming toward them

Unless we assume that the bullets are outright vaporized, which a saber seems capable of doing based on damage to droids and other light-metal objects. In that case, it's going to start getting warm as you're pumping out that much metal gas (and you probably don't want to be breathing that much lead oxide), but insofar as molten metal, it seems unlikely that there would be any.

It's possible, maybe, to defeat a Jedi by having a mix of people firing blasters and submachine guns at them.

That's the way you get them. Overwhelming their ability to defend. It was even on film in Episode III as stormtroopers cut down a Jedi master on foot just by sheer weight of numbers. Oh, a few stormtroopers bought the farm in the process, but in the end, it was a dead Jedi.

 

[gilakmesum]

Is it possible in this present time we create a light saber?

 

[DrClaude]

Is it possible in this present time we create a light saber?

No. Their behavior is so far from the actual behavior of light that there is nothing remotely similar that can currently be anticipated.

 

[jackwhirl]

I'd expect them to vaporize bullets instead.

What about the Leidenfrost effect?

 

[chasrob]

A .50 cal. Browning machine gun can put 82 pounds of lead in the air in one minute, if you want to abuse the barrel. Jedi be dead eye.

How about this--166 bullets per second.

 

[Nik_2213]

IMHO, given a 'light sabre' uses some sort of force-field, sure, the canny wielder can deflect some incoming stuff. If the thing has 'active ride control', it may be able to withstand a few .50 cals etc which would otherwise impart enough momentum to throw the wielder backwards...

Why no combat shotguns ??

 

[Andy SV]

I don't think a light saber can heat copper fast enough and if the bullet was deflected ...well that's a lot of torque and almost twice the kick absorbed by only the mass of the handle and hand of the Jedi

 

[gilakmesum]

hand of the Jedi

hand of the Jedi

That's why they got heavy train before become a jedi...

 

[Andy SV]

How much energy do you need to vaporize 10 grams of lead and .5 of copper
Can you apply it in 1/36000 of a sec
I know lead and copper will both oxidize almost instantly as a vapor
What happens to you if you get bit by an explosion that is already traveling at you at quarter speed of an explosion when it explodes
What if the bullet explosion gets deflected by the saber will it tear itself out of your hand?
That's a lot of energy
Will the saber shut off automatically? If so will it bisect you before it can?

I think it may be a bad idea to block better duck

 

[Khashishi]

Then, with Episode 7, they went totally nuts and seemingly ignored a lot of their own rules.

Consider that episode 7 is in the future of episode 4-6, so it's explainable that the Empire 2.0 could have developed weapons that can block a lightsaber blade. As far as I can tell, the lightsabers are just technology -- they aren't dependent on the force -- so there's no reason why jedi should be in possession of technology superior to what the full resources of the Empire 2.0 can create. The reason stormtroopers don't use lightsabers is that they don't possesses the reflexes to block blaster bolts.

 

[Ryan_m_b]

Jedi use their light sabers as shields when deflecting projectiles - they will stand in front of a blaster and deflect the blast. But Jedi tend to side-step physical objects thrown at them, or stop using their light sabers and use the force to change the path of the incoming object.

There are machine guns that can throw bullets with a separation measured in inches - if you fired one at a Jedi and they naturally try to use their light saber as a shield, they would melt the bullets, but the bullet material would still be coming toward them (!). It's possible, maybe, to defeat a Jedi by having a mix of people firing blasters and submachine guns at them. They can't help but use their light sabers as shields, and they can't concentrate to re-route the bullets.

There are also fights where they use the force to nudge oncoming objects out of the way. We know the average jedi is pretty telekinetic, levitating tonnes or more (like Luke's X-wing). Given that pushing a bullet slightly off course could be possible. Like this (43 seconds specifically):

 

[XZ923]

If the bullet was made of a basic metal like lead, it should vaporize when it hits the blade. However, it wouldn't be instant, and given the way metals tend to melt when hit with a lightsaber, it's possible the bullet may simply fragment with only part of its mass being melted and the majority continuing on around the blade as shrapnel.

There are materials shown to be "lightsaber-proof": Cortosis ore shuts down a lightsaber blade that hits it by causing a feedback through the saber's activation loop; conceivably, a bullet made from cortosis ore could shut down a blade, leaving the wielder vulnerable, especially with a rapid-fire weapon. However, cortosis ore was described by Mara Jade as being too structurally weak to build with. The Emperor had to put sheets of it between his walls to slow down potential Jedi coming for him rather than building the wall itself from the ore. So I don't know about the feasibility of making a projectile from it. Maybe you could make an alloy, but then you might dilute it enough that it doesn't shut down the saber. I would imagine if it was possible, the Emperor would have found a way to do it (or had someone like Bevel Lemelisk find a way), and he didn't.

Likewise, when Luke Skywalker fought the fireworm on Eol Sha, his blade "shattered" when it hit the worm's crystalline, almost perfectly reflective armor. It's conceivable a perfectly reflective projectile might have a similar effect.

Much easier solution though, just have a ysalamiri with you. Then the Jedi won't have the reflexes to deflect your bullet in the first place and the projectile's composition becomes irrelevant.