Could a light saber be possible to make?

[No_Remainders]

The question is, why would you want to limit the beam? If you have a laser powerful enough to cut through flesh, and a power source small enough to be practical, why wouldn't you just use it as a gun?

because lightsaber-blades AREN'T made of lasers!!! Laser fire-arms however, are definitly the wave of the future though, I think. They could be very practical (not to mention multi-functional. and let's face it...nobody's going to make/wear glass armour to stop lasers xD)

I'd definitely fucking wear glass armour...

I'd just wear stuff underneath it >.>

OT: Yeah, possible, but it'll probably never happen.

 

[renegade7]

In theory yes. In practice a normal sword would be just as efficient.

 

[crepesack]

We have infra red casting beams capabale of dealing long range burns being used by riot police today. I would imagine a future lightsaber being a beam of high power infra red beams or light that would be emitted and then it would instead of hitting a reflector hit a solar cell and so wasted light is converted back into electricity for further use. It wouldn't be able to cut but it would burn and scald. Sort of like a whip.

 

[Robert Ewing]

Technically, if you follow the lore, the blade of a lightsaber is made up from special light radiation that comes from the lightsabers crystal. This poses a problem, as if you somehow get the amount of energy needed to create this light, then theoretically instead of the blade being around a meter long (which is what it is in the movies) It would be millions of miles long. Because there is nothing to stop the light from calming down at 1 meter.

The images you provided do solve this problem, but doesn't that defeat the point? It turns it into more of a light-hacksaw. But yeah, provided that this form of light exists (Which it could do) Then we will have to just work with lasers. And getting enough power into a laser for the job this hacksaw will be doing, will be quite tough. Impossible with todays technology to get a laser that strong into the hilt of the saber.

 

[TheLastSamurai14]

Aren't lightsabers practically solid at their blades? Otherwise it's just go through anything it touches, whether it cuts it or not. Making lightsaber duels impossible, and making that stunt where Qui-Gon cuts the door look just a bit silly.

Shh! We don't talk about that movie, remember?

OT:[quote="viranimus" post="9.308336.12434560"However, there is one possibility I can think of that might be able to somewhat emulate the effect. Much like the NMH designs where there is a stopping point at the end of the blade, you need something that would act as an obstruction to light. Now if you were to take a high power laser, then at the tip of the blade area position a series of mirrors that reflected the blade back around to the hilt, to which the hilt also contained a series of mirrors that redirected the beam back up to the tip (contining infinitely) you could have a beam with enough intensity to cut like a laser, but look sort of like a light saber.[/quote]

I like this idea. It's very plausible to construct something like this, perhaps even in the present day.

 

[PinkiePyro]

I think it's more plausible for there to be a laser baton that inflicts heavy burns on contact. More inclined to inflict pain than to kill.

so in other words the stun club from the ape escape series

I'm not even going to lie, if anyone ever made a Stun baton that looked like that one the first thing I would do is go to the zoo and beat the crap out of some monkeys. I'd be arrested, but I bet the Ape Escape community would cover my bail.

OT: I think its within humanity's power to create a light saber but not for actual combat, and not for a very long time. It will most likely be the product of some future nerd, making a weapon from a story told a long time ago, possibly even in a galaxy far, far away.

I think you should rethink that as not all monkeys want to overthrow us
or did you forget about the adorable cuteness that was pipotchi?

http://images.wikia.com/apeescape/images/7/74/Ps2_ape_790screen013.jpg
(large image is large)

 

[lucky_sharm]

They have made it, if you remember that topic that the escapists shown, its very VERY deadly and costs a lot, its small and illegal to own.

Eh, the one you're talking about isn't really a light saber. It's just an incredibly deadly laser pointer that's modeled after a light saber.

 

[Wapox]

Well... the Batterypower is attainable, but it is immensely difficult and expensive to make, Nanotubes are more conductive than any metal today, and used in a coil, it could be even more effective and very much smaller than conventional batteries.. The Plasma is already able to cut through almost anything, atleast anything known to us on Earth. The problem is confining and directing the Plasma in a useful and "swordlike" shape. That may be attained with ceramics, all we need to find is a blend of ceramic that can withstand such hight temperatures. They had an episode on this in Sci-Fi Science on Discovery Science/Discovery Channel.

http://science.discovery.com/tv/sci-fi-science/

 

[k7avenger]

If you want to play with your laser weapons, just remember to leave the planet first. Atmospheres (and the things floating around in em) tend to not play nicely with light.

 

[rsvp42]

Pfft. If you want a proper lightsabre then just have a mono-molecular blade and put lights on it. Does the same job. Can't deflect blasters, but that's actually using the Force, so lightsabres can't do that either.

Like a Variable Sword? I should probably actually read Ringworld so I can make sense of these random bits of trivia I know about it.

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

Pfft. If you want a proper lightsabre then just have a mono-molecular blade and put lights on it. Does the same job. Can't deflect blasters, but that's actually using the Force, so lightsabres can't do that either.

Like a Variable Sword? I should probably actually read Ringworld so I can make sense of these random bits of trivia I know about it.

Very similar. Cyberpunk and Buck Rogers talk more about a mono-molecular cutting tip on a normal blade though. More sturdy.

And mono-whips are just a step beyond stupid. Sort of like the Sphere of Annhilation in D&D.

 

[Mr Companion]

Well of COARSE you can make a lightsaber, you just need a flashlight and some gems taped together! You never played Dead Rising 2 or something?

 

[Gibboniser]

The main problem here is power, and thermal energy, i.e heat. Lightsabers work with plasma, which would need to be contained within a very powerful electromagnetic fields, there would need to be two, which would meet at the furthest point, which envelope the plasma, making a form of blade, unfortunately, the power this would require would be tremendous, not to mention the fact, the plasma well might leak. Although a cool thing is the fact that since it's using very powerful fields, if you were to swing it into another "lightsaber", they would actually hit so to speak.

 

[conmag9]

A beam of plasma would be tricky, but thanks to the wonders of magnetic fields, at least possible in theory. As others have stated however, it would remarkably impractical, both because a gun is still going to kill you sans Force shenanigans and the power supply would have to be enormous.

However, the magnetic-fields holding them together would help explain how lightsaber duels make the slightest degree of sense: they're not physically hitting each other (the plasma bit that is), their fields are repelling one another while their users push forward.

 

[The Lugz]

but it could very well be possible to make some day in the future.

it's possible to generate pulses of light 1 foot long, right now.

the problem is light never has been and never will be a solid physical object
and that will likely never change, unless you can pack so-many photons into a space that it is physically intractable with, but at that luminosity i'm fairly sure anything close would be instantly vaporized as the radiation emitted would be FAR hotter than our sun... and we cant even approach that.

however, presuming we ever made one ( ie ignoring physics as we know it )

you do not have the skills required to wield such a weapon, the point of a light sabre is it's elegance as a multi-tool and it's ability to be offensive, defensive and be thrown with the force and retrieved

you cannot block bullets, you cannot demonstrate swordplay better than ninjas, you cannot force throw and do not have the absurd strength required to slash mega objects aside as shown in the star-wars universe ( massive objects such as boulders, cars, random machinery )

so, presuming you had one what the heck would you do with it?
...??? all i can think of is be a bad ass until someone shoots you, this really needs to be resigned to the hall of failed cool weapons from scifi, like scythes.. they just don't work and never will

( also, if you have the ability to contain the immense heat and radiation from the blade, a better option would be to just use that as a personal shield. )

 

[rutger5000]

This logic only holds if you want to believe that lightsabers could be made
Actually it's extremly easy to limit the extension of the laser. In fact physics will do that for you, any laser eventually diverges, normally it's the trick to get it to diverge it as late and slow as possible. Sure it's a bit odd to have it diverge that suddenly but it if you want to you can believe it to be doable. For all those wiseguys who say a laser beam is invicible, there are always bound to be a few particles in it's way, a high intensity lasser that cuts to everything so easily will probably do lots of fun stuff to all the particles that get in it's way. It's not so incredibly far fetched to assume it causes them to light up. But I can't find an excuse for the jedi lightsaber coming in multiple colours.

 

[CCountZero]

There's the issue of creating a laser powerful enough to actually cut through things instantaneously, and then you have to figure out how to limit the extension of the laser.

The first problem being that a Lightsaber blade consists of highly energized plasma, and don't actually use laser technology at all.

Next problem then is that it's also claimed to be mass-less, and to not radiate any heat until physical contact, which is a contradiction of terms.

Plasma is hot as all hell and you can be damn sure you'd be roasting in your hide long before the 'saber kills you, whether you're the wielder or the chopping board.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Making a Lightsaber as per how the Star Wars universe describes it, is not possible under our current understanding of science, so unless that drastically changes, which, IMHO, it seems very unlikely to do in regard to these mechanics, you're basically shiet out of luck.

 

[omega 616]

snip

I actually saw a programme about this very subject, turns out they can easily make a laser strong enough to cut through just about anything and put it into a subtle handle. The problem is stopping it, making a laser that powerful means it would be blasting a tiny hole in the next planet it touched.

What the guy did was make a plasma sabre, he used some tiny pieces of carbon in the handle as a battery that created more than enough energy to power the "blade", made the "blade" out of some resin (I think) with like inch diameter holes in, which the plasma flowed out of. The plasma was kept to the blade by a magnetic force. Quite awesome really.

See if I can find a vid....

Found it!

 

[xXGeckoXx]

It's understandable how it would seem undoable. There's the issue of creating a laser powerful enough to actually cut through things instantaneously, and then you have to figure out how to limit the extension of the laser.

But, if they somehow could solve both of these issues, couldn't the result very well look like this?

[http://nomoreheroes.wikia.com/index.php?title=Beam_katana&image=BloodBerryTsubakiMkII-jpg]



The beam katana from No More Heroes may not be as elegant and magical as the light saber from Star Wars, but it could very well be possible to make some day in the future.

The problem is you would need too ends. Lightsabers just end magically in the air giving them a fixed length. A no more heroes blade has a cap at the other end. With a chemical laser and a good enough batter (from the future) then yes it is possible to make a no more heroes style blade but no magically stopping lightsaber.

Edit: Plasma torch. Now I feel stupid.

 

[Nieroshai]

I think the default assumption that lightsabers are lasers is what makes them seem impossible or require Travis Touchdown-style flourescent light baseball bats. I'm obviously no physicist, but here's my idea as well as the idea listed in the Star Wars Guide to Weapons and Technology.

Lightsabers are a magnetic feedback loop that essentially channel particles (or plasma?) up and down the blade at super-high speeds. Of course, the issue would be whether or not the device would be too hot to wield, but if it works through a chainsaw-like friction effect as opposed to a melting effect, it becomes more plausible. But then, there's the fact that it cauterizes wounds. Perhaps it is a property of the field itself that causes the burning? Perhaps there are fields that can eliminate heat exchange between the blade and the air outside? While this is more plausible than "LOL lazors" it does continue to raise questions. Simply put: we do not have similar enough tech to properly envision whether one would work or not.