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Ok...puts on flame proof armour...has last rites read...good.

So, i was reading some of the Cultureverse stuff, and i came upon the idea of what exactly a Lightsaber is, and i'm probably wrong so correct me if i am.

Think of it this way: a forcefield, the surface of which is starcore hot and thsu creates the cuarterizing and door-melting effects of the Lightsaber. I got the diea from reading about Culture Knife Missiles, and then it hit me. As for teh colour, i figure it may be a hologram projected inside of the field, so you can aim the thing.

Now, some of this i pulled shit-dripping from my ass, but not all. There are numerous references, including some on the main site, about the surface of forcefields in an atmosphere being incredably hot...that is presumed to be accidental, but maybe it's a design. In larger fields, it means only armoured vehicles and battledroids can walk through, but on the Lightsaber it means that anything it touches is fried. Considering some people have said to me they're Force-projector weapons, this is actually not that far fettched.

Please dont kill me for my heretical theories

Wrong Form. This is PURE Star Wars, meaning no non Star WArs stuff in the threads.

The form you wanted was 'Other Sci-Fi'

newbies

Quit being an ass.

Solauren wrote:Wrong Form. This is PURE Star Wars, meaning no non Star WArs stuff in the threads.

The form you wanted was 'Other Sci-Fi'

newbies

No i was just using the Knife Missile as an analogue. Wahat i meant was that the Empire could easily produce a similar technology. Hell they built their own moon

You are trying WAY too hard.

It seems likely that the lightsabers are indeed mico-thin blades since they leave cuts that don't do much burn damage to surrounding tissue/metal. Also, Thrawn mentioned in Dark Force Rising that a lightsaber created microscopic cuts with partial cauterization indicating that it is a thin blade that has also is extremely hot. Since the heat never transferes to the air, the blade must be encased in some sort of forcefield that allows object to pass freely, but keeps the heat generated by the beam trapped inside.

The blade doesn't generate heat at all. The cauterisation comes from the material heating itself through molecular vibration as the blade strips electrons (which is how it cuts).

Spanky The Dolphin wrote:The blade doesn't generate heat at all. The cauterisation comes from the material heating itself through molecular vibration as the blade strips electrons (which is how it cuts).

Ummm...Spanky, what about the blast door in The Phantom Menace?

Yeah, the door was heating itself.

iirc, lightsabers were originally created involving an experiment involving frozen blaster technology, where the beam for a blaster bolt would be effectively frozen and contained within an energy field of sorts. eventually they refined the technology and made it so the lightsabers were their current size today.

considering that the only individuals really capable of using a lightsaber to its full potential is a jedi, mass-producing them wouldn't really be practical. and the fact that they require special instruction to build properly.

Spanky The Dolphin wrote:Yeah, the door was heating itself.

What?

EDIT: Wait, you are saying that some kind of subatomic friction caused the door to become white hot? Is this theory explained in detail somewhere?

The Kernel wrote:It seems likely that the lightsabers are indeed mico-thin blades since they leave cuts that don't do much burn damage to surrounding tissue/metal. Also, Thrawn mentioned in Dark Force Rising that a lightsaber created microscopic cuts with partial cauterization indicating that it is a thin blade that has also is extremely hot. Since the heat never transferes to the air, the blade must be encased in some sort of forcefield that allows object to pass freely, but keeps the heat generated by the beam trapped inside.

Well a forcefield could conceivably have an atom-thin 'cutting' edge. But in the long run, we have actual evidence that these thinsg generate heat (cuarterizing, the door in TPM) and we know that forcefields get hot really quick. so it's not out of the realm of possibility. I never thought much of the atomic fiction stuff...knife edge forcefeilds and 'frozen' blasters are one thing, but that seemed just too slapped together to try and explain the odd fuctions of a lightsaber.

The Kernel wrote:EDIT: Wait, you are saying that some kind of subatomic friction caused the door to become white hot? Is this theory explained in detail somewhere?

Yeah, that's basically it. The vibration caused by the electron stipping heats up the material that the blade is cutting.

It's part of the most sound and accepted lightsabre operation theory from Robert BK Brown's SW site, which has been defunct and offline for more than a year, but can be found on the Way Back Machine, I think.

18: Quiet, you.

Spanky The Dolphin wrote: Yeah, that's basically it. The vibration caused by the electron stipping heats up the material that the blade is cutting.

It's part of the most sound and accepted operation theory of Robert BK Brown's SW site, which has been defunct and offline for more than a year, but can be found on the Way Back Machine, I think.

Hmmm...I've never heard of "atomic friction", but assuming that it's true, I guess it could explain why the door got white hot since ultra-dense armor metals would have larger numbers of electrons packed closer together.

Interesting, but does Mike or anyone else with more knowledge on the theoretical side of this want to chime in about this theory and its plausibility?

I've never heard him object to it in all the years that it's been around, and many people "in the know" pretty much accept it as the most stable and likely operation method.

Spanky The Dolphin wrote:I've never heard him object to it in all the years that it's been around, and many people "in the know" pretty much accept it as the most stable and likely operation method.

The only reason I ask is because it isn't even presented as a possibility on his Lightsabers page and you would think he would throw it out there if he thought it was plausible.

Spanky The Dolphin wrote:You are trying WAY too hard.

Yeah, I can see why you say that. You said it to me, and this kid's waaaay more than doubling my average posts per day.

The Kernel wrote:

Spanky The Dolphin wrote:I've never heard him object to it in all the years that it's been around, and many people "in the know" pretty much accept it as the most stable and likely operation method.

The only reason I ask is because it isn't even presented as a possibility on his Lightsabers page and you would think he would throw it out there if he thought it was plausible.

Well, he doesn't really cover their operation or properties at all. It's pretty much just a small blurb with credits.

18-Till-I-Die wrote:Well a forcefield could conceivably have an atom-thin 'cutting' edge. But in the long run, we have actual evidence that these thinsg generate heat (cuarterizing, the door in TPM) and we know that forcefields get hot really quick.

Lightsabers are not hot. From the ANH novelization:

A New Hope Novelization, page 65 wrote:Strangely, Luke felt no heat from it, though he was very careful not to touch it. He knew what a lightsaber could do, though he had never seen one before.

So lightsabers have to cause their targets to heat themselves up, most likely as a side-effect of the cutting. But no heat is transferred from the blade to the target.

The Kernel wrote:The only reason I ask is because it isn't even presented as a possibility on his Lightsabers page and you would think he would throw it out there if he thought it was plausible.

As I recall, it was the last theory listed, and the most likely one. I believe somebody has the appropriate text archived, as it was quoted here recently despite no longer being available off his site (to my knowledge).

Rogue 9 wrote:

Spanky The Dolphin wrote:You are trying WAY too hard.

Yeah, I can see why you say that. You said it to me, and this kid's waaaay more than doubling my average posts per day.

In my mind...i have a life beyond my mom's basemen walls...

And i dont think such a thing as 'atomic friction' exists. Couse, i dont know shit from atomic, so if i'm wrong...eh.

Atoms can move. The removal of electrons causes the atoms to move, which cause the molecules to vibrate, which generates heat.

It's fundamental physics, really.

18-Till-I-Die wrote:

Rogue 9 wrote:

Spanky The Dolphin wrote:You are trying WAY too hard.

Yeah, I can see why you say that. You said it to me, and this kid's waaaay more than doubling my average posts per day.

In my mind...i have a life beyond my mom's basemen walls...

And i dont think such a thing as 'atomic friction' exists. Couse, i dont know shit from atomic, so if i'm wrong...eh.

if you don't know that much about physics, then why would you make claims as to whether or not something in it exists?

Darth_Zod wrote:

18-Till-I-Die wrote:

Rogue 9 wrote: Yeah, I can see why you say that. You said it to me, and this kid's waaaay more than doubling my average posts per day.

In my mind...i have a life beyond my mom's basemen walls...

And i dont think such a thing as 'atomic friction' exists. Couse, i dont know shit from atomic, so if i'm wrong...eh.

if you don't know that much about physics, then why would you make claims as to whether or not something in it exists?

Well, i know enough, i guess. But i just never heard of 'atomic friction', and if i may add, it sounded prety technobablish. I have looked it up since then, to an extent. But i just figured that it mad esince that it could be a forcefeild, cause it obvious cuaterizes and melts stuf, and i read on the main site that Star Wars fields get really hot really quick in an atmosphere. Just a guess, like all of it is. Basically it's probably a comination of devices, but i think it's got some kind of forcefield element like a Knife Missile, cause that just seems to make more sense than a fusion inducing energy sword. As much sense as an energy sword of any kind could make that is.

The Kernel wrote:What?

EDIT: Wait, you are saying that some kind of subatomic friction caused the door to become white hot? Is this theory explained in detail somewhere?

The process is in some ways not exotic at all, you get the same effect with microwaves which are hardly affected by air, but alot with water, and microwaves aren't 'warm', but they heat the material they're pointed at.

In a Lightsaber we seem to have some energy beam that only affects solid objects(or affects gasses very little) and that is clearly only so and so long, or is somehow cut off by some other unknown technology, and as some descriptions say the beam loops back so unless the saber is cutting anything it doesn't really draw any power beyond inefficiencies in the blade generating mechanism.
Possibly the glow is the lightsaber energy interacting weakly with the air.

On a related question, can only Jedi/Sith build lightsabers?

And if so, why is that? Do they just hide the knowledge and since no non Force user would care to wield a lightsaber like a sword he doesn't bother to try to duplicate the technology?

Or is there some pseudo mystical element to building a saber that REQUIRES Force attunement?



Ie: Could Han Solo have read Obi-Wan's books and put together a lightsaber (assuming he wanted to for some reason)?