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Thread: The lightsaber

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    Titan in the Playground
     
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    Default The lightsaber

    Seen on IFL Science

    The plasma-powered saber burns at a toasty 2,200°C (4,000°F). Owing to a special nozzle, the plasma shoots out of the handle in an almost-perfect recreation of the Star Wars lightsabers.

    Whilst technically a ‘protosaber’ instead of a lightsaber due to it relying on an external power pack and not some tiny infinite energy source within the handle, this feat was the product of four years’ work by the engineers. Earlier attempts heated long tungsten rods to extreme temperatures. However, “the internet is never pleased,” according to the Hacksmith and so they set out to create a version that retracts and extends like the sci-fi originals.

    The latest lightsaber features a specialized laminar nozzle that produces a laminar flow (a smooth flow of liquid or gas with little or no mixing) of compressed liquid propane gas. Heated to high temperatures and highly concentrated, the gas becomes a circular beam of glowing plasma that looks like a lightsaber. Whilst the technology is currently used mainly in glass blowing, becoming a lightsaber is the upgrade it certainly deserves.

    Slashing through steel, the saber is capable of some impressive feats. However, it isn’t a lightsaber without the characteristic colors to define what side of the force you’re on. Luckily, the Hacksmith have even got that covered. By introducing different salts, the flowing plasma glows with vibrant colors including green, orange, and red. Should you wish to be everyone’s favorite miniature Jedi Yoda, boric acid will burn bright green. Leaning more to the dark side, calcium chloride (commonly known as salt) will give you a red-orange.
    So ... when can I get one? I wonder if it will make it easier to get through the brush on my property than a chainsaw would ?

    Respectfully,

    Brian P.
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    Default Re: The lightsaber

    Quote Originally Posted by pendell View Post
    Seen on IFL Science



    So ... when can I get one? I wonder if it will make it easier to get through the brush on my property than a chainsaw would ?

    Respectfully,

    Brian P.
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    Default Re: The lightsaber

    The people who made it also posted a testing video on thursday.

    It cut through a steel door, shredded through insulation, cut through a side of meat(and, apparently, cooked it enough to be edible,) was used to cook and then burn a turkey(destroying the barbecue grill,) it melts and shatters tempered glass, and in addition to the steel door they cut through a shield of steel roughly equivocal to what a blast shield would be made of. While they didn't test it continuously, it also seems able to obliterate concrete.

    So, it's not gonna be deflecting bullets and it's not gonna clash when two of them swing at each other and, obviously, we just don't have the technology to store enough fuel or energy to generate a plasma blade indefinitely, let along stored in the blade proper, but yeah. We have Lightsabers.

    It's actually deceptively simple how it works: It's basically just a giant plasma torch.

    Now it's just a matter of making the technology more practical.
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    Default Re: The lightsaber

    Quote Originally Posted by Rater202 View Post
    Now it's just a matter of making the technology more practical.
    A lightsaber is only “practical” in the films because Jedi can deflect blaster bolts with them. If they couldnt, blasters would be the far more effective weapon.

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    Default Re: The lightsaber

    Quote Originally Posted by Chen View Post
    A lightsaber is only “practical” in the films because Jedi can deflect blaster bolts with them. If they couldnt, blasters would be the far more effective weapon.
    Well, if we're going to go hard core science on this, a blaster-deflecting shield or body armor would be more practical than a blaster-deflecting sword. And the blaster deflecting lightsaber only works becuase Jedi Precognition allows them to foresee the bolts and move the blade into position to deflect before they are actually struck. Absent Jedi precognition, soldiers would be far better off taking cover and fighting back with blasters and detonators than trying to deflect a beam weapon with a sword. Even if you can get away with it once, you probably won't be able to deflect all the others incoming at the same time.

    There's a reason only Jedi and Sith use lightsabers in the show, and I don't think it's just because they're a status symbol. It's because only a force-user can use the weapon to its full potential; everyone else is better off with a blaster.

    I suspect the blaster-deflecting Jedi is based on the Samurai stories of Samurai dodging arrows or deflecting them with their blades. And those are great stories. But in the real world there's a reason the Boshin War wasn't won by Samurai with katana effortlessly dodging the bullets of a modern battlefield, but by the side with gatling guns.

    Respectfully,

    Brian P.
    Last edited by pendell; 2020-10-20 at 09:41 AM.
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    Default Re: The lightsaber

    Quote Originally Posted by pendell View Post
    So ... when can I get one? I wonder if it will make it easier to get through the brush on my property than a chainsaw would ?
    Sure, if you don't mind your property (and probably the surrounding few hundred square miles) to look like California a couple weeks ago.

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    Default Re: The lightsaber

    That's like a lightsaber and a Fallout shishkebab had a baby.

    Very cool, but I wouldn't cut through steel without breathing protection. Or explode glass in a t-shirt. Or throw around sand turning into glass while in a t-shirt!

    Actually, I'm starting to think that the jedi robes are the monkish equivalent of a blacksmith's leather apron.
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    Default Re: The lightsaber

    Quote Originally Posted by Chen View Post
    A lightsaber is only “practical” in the films because Jedi can deflect blaster bolts with them. If they couldnt, blasters would be the far more effective weapon.
    I meant "refine it so that the onboard fuel pack lasts for more than five minutes."
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    Quote Originally Posted by zimmerwald1915 View Post
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    Default Re: The lightsaber

    Quote Originally Posted by pendell View Post

    So ... when can I get one? I wonder if it will make it easier to get through the brush on my property than a chainsaw would ?
    Yes it would. A burnt down area of brush is usally more easily navigated when all that pesky vegetation exists.

    Quote Originally Posted by Brother Oni View Post
    Sure, if you don't mind your property (and probably the surrounding few hundred square miles) to look like California a couple weeks ago.
    I see my initial thought wasn't as unique as I imagined when clicking reply.
    Last edited by snowblizz; 2020-10-23 at 06:25 AM.

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    Default Re: The lightsaber

    Quote Originally Posted by snowblizz View Post
    I see my initial thought wasn't as unique as I imagined when clicking reply.
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    Default Re: The lightsaber

    Originally Posted by Vinyadan
    Very cool, but I wouldn't cut through steel without breathing protection.
    This was my first thought—together with “Fireproof clothing, please?”

    Originally Posted by Vinyadan
    Or explode glass in a t-shirt.
    Seen at 6:14 in the video, this explains how Mace Windu could shatter the entire window in the Chancellor’s office with one slash.

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