What sort of extremes can Jedi ignore?

[Bilbo]

Has anyone ever done any calcs for how much heat energy Obi Wan and Anakin ignore during their duel? The highpoint appears to be when Anaking runs up the falling section that has just gone over the lava falls and jump onto the floating droid.

If we assume non-exotic materials in the lava and found the best Earth equivalent how hot are we talking?

[Illuminatus Primus]

I'm more interested in how they breathe.

[lordofFNORD]

When Anakin's clothes catch on fire, I don't see a spark or other source, so it must be at least be the fabric's autoignition temperature. For most fabrics, this is 400-500 C, though depending on the fabric and additives, it could be as low as ~200 C. Note that this would be a lower limit.

Databank gives the lava temperature as ~800 (standard, which I guess is Celsius), so that's an upper limit for just about everything. The droid Anakin lands on seems to have been in the lava all along (seems to be a mining droid, or some such), so it should be close to that.

Note that convection could be blocked in other ways than simply withstanding the heat. If they held a portion of air around their bodies motionless (relative to their bodies), it would prevent convection, and conduction through gases is quite slow. Withstanding conduction when in contact with a surface pretty much requires magic, though.

As for breathing, in Specter of the Past (IRC, I know it's somewhere), Luke seems confident of dealing with any airborne toxin (though not vacuum). Whether that includes atmospheres where oxygen is not present at all (perhaps by extracting oxygen from carbon or sulfur oxides) is unclear. Note that Wookiepedia calls the atmosphere "breathable", though it cites no source.

[Darth Raptor]

The battle between Kenobi and Vader is very difficult, if not impossible to quantify due to the technological effects that were almost certainly in play. Parsimony lends one to believe that the air was kept cool and, indeed, breathable by resident environmental equipment (regardless of what the EU would have you believe: Mustafar itself having a breathable atmosphere with exotic, non-toxic and super-cool volcanic ejecta. Ugh).

[The Romulan Republic]

How long was Luke stumbling around in the cold on Hoth, and how cold does Hoth get at night? Also, aren't their multiple instances in the films of Jedi taking multiple blaster shots before they go down, said shots leaving little visible injury despite blasting pieces off metal battle droids? For that matter, stormtrooper blasters, which always seem to kill ordinary troops, only cause Leia a minor injury. She's still conscious, able to speak normally, and even able to use a blaster with considerable accuracy.

Just some other potential examples of Jedi having higher physical endurance and/or the abillity to shield themselves some what from their physical surroundings.

[Captain Seafort]

How long was Luke stumbling around in the cold on Hoth, and how cold does Hoth get at night?

I'm not sure if that's such a good example - Luke was effectively untrained at that point, and was dying of hypothermia before Han showed up. If anything it's probably better as an upper limit for cold-weather gear.

For that matter, stormtrooper blasters, which always seem to kill ordinary troops, only cause Leia a minor injury. She's still conscious, able to speak normally, and even able to use a blaster with considerable accuracy.

Again, not a great example since she wasn't hit - the bolt hit the doorframe and she was caught by a spark.

[Darth Hoth]

At least some Jedi can shrug off blaster bolts with apparent ease; Luke Skywalker parried an AT-AT's main guns (upgunned to turbolaser?) in Dark Empire; Corran Horn took a massive explosion in I, Jedi that blew a block to kingdom come and burned the clothes off his body; and supposedly Jacen Solo can take turbolasers in the LotF books (though the last one is second hand, I still refuse to read those).

The Jedi Exile was shown to be entirely immune to at least one airborne chemical agent that was ordinarily fatal to humans (a nerve gas, if I recall correctly) in KotOR II. Darth Bane was poisoned and nearly died in Path of Destruction, though I believe he commented that had he discovered the poison earlier, it would have been no threat.

Luke Skywalker could bathe with his lightsabre activated in Splinter of the Mind's Eye; given the heat it produces, this should have made the water close to him rather hot.

Jedi medicine can kill individual nanoviruses, as per the Jedi Academy books; it goes to follow that they are immune to most diseases (excepting Yuuzhan Vong stuff that is invisible to the Force).

[PainRack]

I would just like to point out that Shadows of the Empire establishes that Vader lungs itself are scarred. Since scarring from hot air only burns the upper respiratory tract as air rapidly cools, this could only mean that the chemicals in the air itself are corrosive.

[Bilbo]

I would just like to point out that Shadows of the Empire establishes that Vader lungs itself are scarred. Since scarring from hot air only burns the upper respiratory tract as air rapidly cools, this could only mean that the chemicals in the air itself are corrosive.

An object can only cool if it has something cooler around it to absorb the heat or some way to radiate the heat. If his entire body is overheating and nothing but hot air is entering his lungs then it is possible that after a while hot air will make ti all the way into his lungs.

[lordofFNORD]

In NJO (Vector Prime?), Corran Horn is touched by a lightsaber, but manages to suffer only minor burns (though he was ready for it, and it's implied that this is an unusual ability of his). Elsewhere in NJO, other Jedi suffer significantly less than normal people from various YV toxins and diseases, but they are not immune.

In the Jedi Academy trilogy, IRC, Luke and Corran withstand (for short periods) water heated to boiling by geysers, while the other apprentices cannot.

In Specter of the Past, Luke is "captured" by pirates using a trap with a mesh of metal bars; he's confident of his ability to neutralize any toxin they pump into the room (he's only worried when they pump the air out). He then survives the explosion of an overcharged power-pack strong enough to bend the bars. He also crosses over to a ship without a vac suit, with only minor damage.

In Survivor's quest, Luke and Mara can neutralize corrosive gas as they breath it, but only with significant concentration.

[Bilbo]

In NJO (Vector Prime?), Corran Horn is touched by a lightsaber, but manages to suffer only minor burns (though he was ready for it, and it's implied that this is an unusual ability of his). Elsewhere in NJO, other Jedi suffer significantly less than normal people from various YV toxins and diseases, but they are not immune.

In the Jedi Academy trilogy, IRC, Luke and Corran withstand (for short periods) water heated to boiling by geysers, while the other apprentices cannot.

In Specter of the Past, Luke is "captured" by pirates using a trap with a mesh of metal bars; he's confident of his ability to neutralize any toxin they pump into the room (he's only worried when they pump the air out). He then survives the explosion of an overcharged power-pack strong enough to bend the bars. He also crosses over to a ship without a vac suit, with only minor damage.

In Survivor's quest, Luke and Mara can neutralize corrosive gas as they breath it, but only with significant concentration.

If the duration is short enough and the person properly prepared it is not impossible for a person to survive the vacuum for space for a short period. I am sure though that Luke could survive longer by holding a bubble of air around him.

[Connor MacLeod]

Jedi can deflect or redirect blaster bolts with their saber (or even bare hands) without neccesairly absorbing the energy. The latter is more reliable (but more difficult and rareer, I think) And its not a consistent ability and the variables are too much (we know nothing on blaster settings, for one, or jedi capabilities, or how skills play out. Just because a Jedi is powerful does not neccesaril mean his skills allow him to absorb powerful amounts of energy, for example.) That Jedi council member in aOTC that got blasted by Fett is an example, but Ki-Adi-Mundi took two shots, a nd from frame by frames I watched the wounds were narrow but went completely through his torso (and looked to either cauterize/incinerate their way through.) Aayla Secura seemed to take multiple shots (and the burns looked pretty cauterized/charred as well, but that might have been overkill.

The lava temps I'm not sure on. It might or might not be 800C but I'm inclined to think higher - remember they were mining metals as well as rock from that planet, and that lava was pretty liquid (and fairly bright.. yellow white with some orange in it I think) I'm not entirely sure how accurately you could translate lava temps anyhow. My best surmise is that Mustafar must be very much like the inside of a volcano and thus any protection they had must be at least equivlaent to modern equipment used in similar conditions.

Storm Troopers looked able to walk in those conditions completely unaffected as well, so that says something about their resilienc.

I vageuly recall that hte "Complete locations" guide that covered Mustafar mentioned that Obi-Wan and Anakin were generating some sort of bubble forcefields around themselves that provided air. For that to work they must have been subconsciously filtering the air to keep out the harmful stuff (which suggests they both had some very impressive fine control, given the fighting they were doing) Alternately, one might assume they had some accelerated healing process to repair the damage, but this is less likely.

[AMT]

In NJO (Vector Prime?), Corran Horn is touched by a lightsaber, but manages to suffer only minor burns (though he was ready for it, and it's implied that this is an unusual ability of his).

It's a special ability of his family line. They can absorb energy and use it to power other force abilities, most notably TK, as his family cannot normally do anything except very minor things with it otherwise.

[Vultur]

The Hoth thing is interesting. Luke didn't show any unusual resistance to the cold at all; he seemed affected like a normal human. (I'm assuming that the cold is roughly equivalent to Earth's Arctic regions; the tauntauns certainly seem to be standard carbon-and-water life.)

[Batman]

The Hoth thing is interesting. Luke didn't show any unusual resistance to the cold at all; he seemed affected like a normal human. (I'm assuming that the cold is roughly equivalent to Earth's Arctic regions; the tauntauns certainly seem to be standard carbon-and-water life.)

Ahem.

I'm not sure if that's such a good example - Luke was effectively untrained at that point, and was dying of hypothermia before Han showed up. If anything it's probably better as an upper limit for cold-weather gear.

[Bilbo]

The Hoth thing is interesting. Luke didn't show any unusual resistance to the cold at all; he seemed affected like a normal human. (I'm assuming that the cold is roughly equivalent to Earth's Arctic regions; the tauntauns certainly seem to be standard carbon-and-water life.)

Ahem.

I'm not sure if that's such a good example - Luke was effectively untrained at that point, and was dying of hypothermia before Han showed up. If anything it's probably better as an upper limit for cold-weather gear.

Also, living his entire life on a desert planet would make him even less able to handle cold well. Might take a lot of concentration just to be fairly comfortable on Hoth.

[lordofFNORD]

The Hoth thing is interesting. Luke didn't show any unusual resistance to the cold at all; he seemed affected like a normal human. (I'm assuming that the cold is roughly equivalent to Earth's Arctic regions; the tauntauns certainly seem to be standard carbon-and-water life.)

Not to mention the fact that he's injured by the wampa.

[PainRack]

An object can only cool if it has something cooler around it to absorb the heat or some way to radiate the heat. If his entire body is overheating and nothing but hot air is entering his lungs then it is possible that after a while hot air will make ti all the way into his lungs.

From what I'm reading from my burns manual, its impossible because heat from air would be rapidly dissipated down the upper respiratory tract, thus, it would be relatively too cool before it reaches the lungs.

Without going into the physics and temperature of an volcanic environment, hot air and smoke from real life fires aren't able to scar the lungs itself, and Anakin force powers seems to had made the comparison similar.

[Bilbo]

An object can only cool if it has something cooler around it to absorb the heat or some way to radiate the heat. If his entire body is overheating and nothing but hot air is entering his lungs then it is possible that after a while hot air will make ti all the way into his lungs.

From what I'm reading from my burns manual, its impossible because heat from air would be rapidly dissipated down the upper respiratory tract, thus, it would be relatively too cool before it reaches the lungs.

Without going into the physics and temperature of an volcanic environment, hot air and smoke from real life fires aren't able to scar the lungs itself, and Anakin force powers seems to had made the comparison similar.

So basically for hot air to hit and burn the lungs the entire body would have had to be cooked first so there was nothing cooler for the air to dissipate its heat into.

But this is a Jedi we are talking about. If he is blocking the heat from hitting his body then the air entering his lungs will still be burning hot. Basically imagine wearing a heat proof glove and sticking your hand in boiling water. The water is still boiling hot but the glove keeps you from feeling it. Now if you suddenly pull of the glove or in Anakin's case you suddenly lose concentration and your force ability fails then the hot air already in your lungs starts to interact with your lungs and burn you.

[FA Xerrik]

But this is a Jedi we are talking about. If he is blocking the heat from hitting his body then the air entering his lungs will still be burning hot. Basically imagine wearing a heat proof glove and sticking your hand in boiling water. The water is still boiling hot but the glove keeps you from feeling it. Now if you suddenly pull of the glove or in Anakin's case you suddenly lose concentration and your force ability fails then the hot air already in your lungs starts to interact with your lungs and burn you.

That doesn't make much sense. How is he absorbing oxygen if he's preventing the air from touching his lungs?

[Bilbo]

But this is a Jedi we are talking about. If he is blocking the heat from hitting his body then the air entering his lungs will still be burning hot. Basically imagine wearing a heat proof glove and sticking your hand in boiling water. The water is still boiling hot but the glove keeps you from feeling it. Now if you suddenly pull of the glove or in Anakin's case you suddenly lose concentration and your force ability fails then the hot air already in your lungs starts to interact with your lungs and burn you.

That doesn't make much sense. How is he absorbing oxygen if he's preventing the air from touching his lungs?

He is using the Force to absorb dissipate the heat as it touches his body. As he breaths in some of the air wont ever touch him until it has entered his lungs. If he suddenly loses concentration then that hot air in his lungs suddenly burns him instead of being absorbed by the Force.

[Joviwan]

I think it's far more likely to say that having three of his limbs sliced off just before he ignites due to high ambient temperature ruined his concentration enough to allow the corrosive volcanic air to scar the insides of his lungs.

[PainRack]

He is using the Force to absorb dissipate the heat as it touches his body. As he breaths in some of the air wont ever touch him until it has entered his lungs. If he suddenly loses concentration then that hot air in his lungs suddenly burns him instead of being absorbed by the Force.

My sole contention with that would be........... what about his airway？There would still be massive damage to the upper respiratory tract..... Has his airway been replaced entirely by a mechanical tube?

[erik_t]

Obviously a sufficient quantity (or duration, same thing really) of sufficiently hot air would burn every bit of the lung. Presumably your burns manual cuts off at the point at which death is waaaay inevitable for a normal human, however Kenobi and Skywalker were probably enduring much more than that before showing any signs of injury.

[Havok]

Well Obi-Wan, as far as we know, never had any negative effects of the time spent there fighting, so whatever happened to Anakin externally and internally, I feel, can be attributed directly to the actual burning he endured.