05-20-2005, 03:45 AM
Doc,May 19 2005, 11:33 PM Wrote:The physics of a lightsabre are interesting to ponder, and in theory they could really be made. A lab in Australia managed to push a small object with a special type of laser. Once they figure out how they did it, and can reproduce the results on a regular basis, we will be a lot closer to making a lightsabre type weapon a reality.
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I was watching a Discovery Channel thing about the possibilities of a lightsaber, and most physicists seemed to agree that using lasers was pretty much impossible. This is mostly due to the fact that it it isn't reasonable to suggest that you can make a beam of laser light solid and give it a defined shape and endpoint.
They do think that it might be possible to do something like that using plasma. Plasma is a form of matter and can be contained in a shape given the correct containing force. Currently the only way to contain plasma is to use a magnetic force, but there's nothing stopping anyone from figuring out a way to use a strong nuclear force (which no one knows WTF) to contain plasma into a narrow blade-like shape.
Of course, this whole plasma thing goes against the Star Wars stuff about crystals focusing light into a beam for the lightsaber. It might be possible, but not the way Star Wars portays it.