Explore How to Make a Lightsaber: Physics in Star Wars

  • Thread starter runicle
  • Start date
  • Tags
    Physics
In summary, the conversation discusses the possibility of creating real-life versions of various technology and concepts from the Star Wars franchise. While some things are simply impossible, such as faster-than-light travel, others may be feasible with advanced technology and a strong power source. The conversation also touches on the fictional aspects of the Force and how it has been portrayed in the Star Wars universe. Additionally, the conversation includes humorous observations about the unrealistic elements of the franchise, such as sound in space and the accuracy of weapons.
  • #1
runicle
75
0
Physics in starwars!

(Not sure about if I'm posting in the right section)
I haven't seen any starwar movie (only in commercials) and recently i heard there making a religion about starwars. Well anyway... why is it that the only thing scientists can't make from the movie is the lightsabers?

If you can, try to figure out a way to make one?
P.S. I do know its all fiction!
 
Physics news on Phys.org
  • #2
Actually, the things that can't be made are the propulsion devices. Faster than light is impossible, period. Something similar to a lightsabre is possible given a strong enough power source. It won't be quite the same, but still... The artificial intelligence thing is still iffy, but we can't rule it out.
The Force, of course, is purely fiction, but it's not something that was supposedly created by people anyhow.
 
  • #3
runicle said:
(Not sure about if I'm posting in the right section)
I haven't seen any starwar movie (only in commercials) and recently i heard there making a religion about starwars. Well anyway... why is it that the only thing scientists can't make from the movie is the lightsabers?
If you can, try to figure out a way to make one?
P.S. I do know its all fiction!

I'm only going off of what i hear about the movie series and I agree with Danger, there are more then a couple things in the series that just don't work in the real world. The thing with the lightsaber is that you are trying to somehow control a beam that simply does not want to stay put and do it in a way that the mechanism that controls can be stationary and out of the way.

As far as the propullsion devices... they seem to be from what I've seen in commercials nad clips here and there... a load of BS. I also don't remember seeing any thrusters other then the main one which makes me wonder how on Earth these people are moving in free space with no gyroscopic thrusters (if that's the word)... kinda like how the space station or satellites or the space shuttle move in different directions other then straight forward.

I also remember seeing some huge blue balls of god knows what being thrown at strange giraffe/kangaroo hybrids... yah i won't even go there
 
  • #4
There's also the whole "ship engines making noise in a vaccum" thing :wink:
 
  • #5
Don't be dissing Star Wars...BTW...I agree with everything so far. I just had to stick up for it.
 
  • #6
FredGarvin said:
Don't be dissing Star Wars...BTW...I agree with everything so far. I just had to stick up for it.

So, how's the religion? :biggrin:
 
  • #7
My force is strong.
 
  • #8
My swartz is bigger than yours.
 
  • #9
dicerandom said:
There's also the whole "ship engines making noise in a vaccum" thing :wink:

Yeah, and don't forget all the explosions.

The Star Wars galaxy must be in a very oxygen-rich region of outer space. :rofl:
 
  • #10
Speaking of the Force in Star Wars, here's something I found in Wikipedia:

"c. 25,200 BBY - The Force is discovered by many groups across the galaxy; many dismiss them as mystic crackpots."

Intriguing, isn't it?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dates_in_Star_Wars
 
  • #12
About Star Wars, I don't know, but there's a great little book which is "The Physics of Star Trek", which is fun to read.
 
  • #13
The thing that I always found incredulous about lightsabers is that they are able to stop each other, but I remember reading on starwars.com that they aren't actually light beams; they're force fields molded into the shape of a saber, and I suppose they are capable of cutting through anything but another saber.

Actually, I do believe there may have been something in the EU about a yellow lightsaber that was developed which could cut through other lightsabers, but the technology was abandoned by its developer as it was thought to be too dangerous.
 
  • #14
loseyourname said:
I suppose they are capable of cutting through anything but another saber.

If I remember correctly, they can't cut through the Yuuzhan Vong amphistaff's either
 
  • #15
Tom Mattson said:
Yeah, and don't forget all the explosions.
The Star Wars galaxy must be in a very oxygen-rich region of outer space. :rofl:
Taken from "The Laws of Anime", many of which are applicable to sci-fi.
"Law of Sonic Amplification, First Law of Anime Acoustics
In space, loud sounds, like explosions, are even louder because there is no air to get in the way."
 
  • #16
Episode III had a new and annoying visual feature...missiles with smoke trails in outer space. That's another good one.
 
  • #17
matthyaouw said:
Taken from "The Laws of Anime", many of which are applicable to sci-fi.
"Law of Sonic Amplification, First Law of Anime Acoustics
In space, loud sounds, like explosions, are even louder because there is no air to get in the way."

Great link:biggrin: ...my favorite:

Law of Nominative Clamovocation

(from Luiko-Ysabeth and Adrian Hsiah)

The likelihood of success and damage done by a martial arts attack is directly proportional to the volume at which the full name of the attack is announced
 
  • #18
This one is also quite relevent:
Law of Inverse Accuracy

The accuracy of a 'Good Guy' when operating any form of fire-arm increases as the difficulty of the shot increases. The accuracy of the 'Bad Guys' when operating fire-arms decreases when the difficulty of the shot decreases. (Also known as the Stormtrooper Effect)

Example: A 'Good Guy' in a drunken stupor being held upside down from a moving vehicle will always hit, and several battalions of 'Bad Guys' firing on a 'Good Guy' standing alone in the middle of an open field will always miss.

--First Corollary - The more 'Bad Guys' there are, the less likely they will hit anyone or do any real damage.

--Second Corollary - Whenever a 'Good Guy' is faced with insurmountable odds, the 'Bad Guys' line up in neat rows, allowing the hero to take them all out with a single burst of automatic fire and then escape.

--Third Corollary - Whenever a 'Good Guy' is actually hit by enemy fire, it is in a designated 'Good Guy Area', usually a flesh wound in the shoulder or arm, which restricts the 'Good Guy' from doing anything more strenuous than driving, firing weaponry, using melee weapons, operating heavy machinery, or doing complex martial arts maneuvres.
 
  • #19
Pengwuino said:
The thing with the lightsaber is that you are trying to somehow control a beam that simply does not want to stay put and do it in a way that the mechanism that controls can be stationary and out of the way.
There are two approaches to it that I've been toying with, although neither would appear to be possible with current technology. Both would require far more power than any current batteries could provide.
The first would be to have a pre-fusion temperature plasma contained in a tubular magnetic field. The second is to have a high-intensity laser firing along the major axis of the sabre through a half-silvered parabolic mirror to another parabolic mirror on the end of a thin rod. The idea is to keep the beam confined to a straight back-and-forth path. There are probably quite sound optical principles that would prevent that, but I don't know about optics so I won't let it bother me. :biggrin:
 
  • #20
Danger said:
The second is to have a high-intensity laser firing along the major axis of the sabre through a half-silvered parabolic mirror to another parabolic mirror on the end of a thin rod. The idea is to keep the beam confined to a straight back-and-forth path. There are probably quite sound optical principles that would prevent that, but I don't know about optics so I won't let it bother me. :biggrin:

The bit on the end is always the tricky part. We've seen them drive the beams directly into solid hullmetal. There can't be any physical component on the end of the beam.
 
  • #21
I know that they do that in the movie, Dave, but one has to compromise when attempting to turn art into reality. My Wolverine claws don't require surgical implantation, but I like 'em anyhow.
 
  • #22
I was just talking about the light sabers...
 
  • #23
matthyaouw said:
(Also known as the Stormtrooper Effect)

Wikipedia has a mathematical model to the Stormtrooper Effect, it is quite humourous too:

4e63cfa3e4f079eb3e13f643162fcb9f.png


where n is the number of "bad guys", x is the number of "good guys", and J is the number of Jedi present (if any). The equation reads, "The probability of a bad guy hitting his target is equal to the inverse of all bad guys present plus the cube of the number of good guys present (plus one) plus the number of Jedi present (plus one) to the tenth power." From this, one can infer that the presence of a good guy has a detrimental effect on the bad guys' accuracy, while having even one Jedi present is a veritable death sentence.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stormtrooper_effect#Formalization [Broken]
 
Last edited by a moderator:
  • #24
FredGarvin said:
Episode III had a new and annoying visual feature...missiles with smoke trails in outer space. That's another good one.
Can't have smoke trails? Why not?
 
  • #25
runicle said:
(Not sure about if I'm posting in the right section)
I haven't seen any starwar movie (only in commercials) and recently i heard there making a religion about starwars. Well anyway... why is it that the only thing scientists can't make from the movie is the lightsabers?
If you can, try to figure out a way to make one?
P.S. I do know its all fiction!
I didn't know that scientist have built a Death Star or faster then light travel or lasers..:rofl:
I think scientist might be able to build all that stuff somtime in the future(even light sabers) but I hope they don't make a Death star.
 
  • #26
Mk said:
Can't have smoke trails? Why not?

I'd imagine they'd disperse instantly due to the vacuum.
 
  • #27
Originally posted by scott1
I didn't know that scientist have built a Death Star or faster then light travel or lasers..
I think scientist might be able to build all that stuff somtime in the future(even light sabers) but I hope they don't make a Death star.
First off i haven't seen the movie(s) and second i just heard scientists know how to make everything, except for the lightsaber. They just don't have the resources.
 
Last edited:
  • #28
siddharth said:
If I remember correctly, they can't cut through the Yuuzhan Vong amphistaff's either

Two more to add onto the list, Phrik metal, used to make the electrostaffs used by General Grevious's guards and supposedly Madalorian iron.
 
  • #29
and just what the heck is phrik metal? Ytterbium impregnated with the inflated sense of self esteem eminating from writers and editors who know less physics than a three-legged moose? :rolleyes: Apparently it has a Young's modulus of eighty-three kilomegagigatetraübertetra Nm^-2 and can reach 182.5% of it's theoretical value as it is incredibly succeptible to anticrack propogation.
 
  • #30
It's commonly referred to as unobtanium.
 
  • #31
runicle said:
First off i haven't seen the movie(s) and second i just heard scientists know how to make everything, except for the lightsaber. They just don't have the resources.
They still don't know how to build death stars(I hope they don't)
 

Similar threads

  • Science Fiction and Fantasy Media
Replies
2
Views
1K
  • Science Fiction and Fantasy Media
Replies
17
Views
1K
  • Science Fiction and Fantasy Media
Replies
5
Views
2K
  • Sci-Fi Writing and World Building
Replies
11
Views
2K
  • General Discussion
Replies
26
Views
3K
  • Science Fiction and Fantasy Media
Replies
11
Views
5K
  • Science Fiction and Fantasy Media
Replies
17
Views
2K
  • Sci-Fi Writing and World Building
Replies
9
Views
1K
  • General Discussion
2
Replies
40
Views
2K
  • Science Fiction and Fantasy Media
Replies
11
Views
3K
Back
Top