How Lightsabers Work

SirMutex writes "How Stuff Works explains the inner workings of the Jedi weapon of choice. Complete with alternate uses and safety considerations, the article is a welcomed companion for those still learning the ways of the Force." From the article: "Chances are that you have seen a lightsaber at one time or another, whether on the evening news or down at the local cantina. Therefore you know that a lightsaber is an amazing and versatile device that is able to cut through nearly anything in a matter of milliseconds. Have you ever wondered how these remarkable weapons work? Where does the energy come from, and how are they able to contain that energy in a rod-like column of glowing power?"

Re:I use mine for toasting bread

[Anonymous Coward]

Trillian does likewise in the H2G2 movie

This is stupid...

[dhazard]

Just buy one from thinkgeek...

http://www.thinkgeek.com/cubegoodies/toys/69de/ [thinkgeek.com]

Printable version (Don't have to click on "Next")

[Spades_]

http://www.howstuffworks.com/lightsaber.htm/printa ble [howstuffworks.com]

Spoilers

[Sheepdot]

WARNING: SPOILERS

http://www.supershadow.com/starwars/episode3/spoil ers.html [supershadow.com]

For a good history on jedi and sith, there is another page on the same site:
http://www.jedipurge.com/ [jedipurge.com]

The reason I mention this? There is a bit of history about lightsaber development that is pretty intriguing, including a "yellow" saber that has the ability to "actually slice through any other light saber". Good stuff if you're willing to deal with a few spoilers (mostly events between Episode 2 & 3) to learn more about the history of the Jedi and Sith.

It gave me a new outlook on the prequels, and I'm finding that Phantom Menace really isn't as bad as I thought it was around 1999.

Your Lightsaber and You

[DaHat]

If we are going to discuss lightsabers... one must point out the film Your Lightsaber and You [shockwave.com] over on Atom Films. To quote it's blurb: There's more to being a Jedi than mind tricks and meditation. You also have to know the proper method of handling your light saber safely! Tune into this informative industrial film on the finer points of opening up a proverbial can of whup-ass with your light saber.

Re:Cut, not Slash/Slice

[AndroidCat]

From the Book of the Five Rings [samurai.com], I'd guess.

Re:Dumbest. Story. Ever.

[Ucklak]

These light sabers [walmart.com] are pretty cool.

I saw one at Borders for $120 and was pretty impressed.

Re:Dumbest. Story. Ever.

[kni52]

They actually have an article on Hoverboards [howstuffworks.com] too. At least I can read about how my two favorite fictional gadgets work in "theory".

Check Ebay

[Embedded Geek]

But I thought according to Star Wars lore, you couldn't "buy" a lightsaber.

The article addesses this in the section "Using Your Lightsaber Around the Home": Although a lightsaber is typically used as a defensive weapon by Jedi knights, the availability of lightsabers on consumer sites such as eBay is growing. It is a sad fact of life, but if a Jedi knight falls on hard times, his lightsaber is one source of quick cash. He can always build another one.

I particularly like the photos of cutting hedges and slicing bagels with one.

Re:Force power

[Anonymous Coward]

Solo does have Force powers. If you read the source books, Solo was selected to be Vader's first Star Destroyer captian becase he alone among the candidates was able to turn on Vader Lightsaber. The switch is inside the device (whatever the article said) and can only be activated by Force power. Whether one is on or off is a mental choice of the user. Any sentient can have force power depending on the level of mideclorians (sp?) in their body but that doesn't mean they're Jedi's. As as a further example, Solo won the millenium falcon from Lando Calrisian in a card game. The reason that Calrisian still refers the falcon as his ship is because Solo used force powers to cheat.

Re:Lightsaber Depot?

[Dun Malg]

Luke picks up and turns on the lightsaber that Obi Wan gave him upon first meeting him, with Obi Wan telling him that it was his father's. Luke has no problem turning it on and using it. Can this mean that it shows Obi Wan that he has the power of "the force"? It definitely shows that Luke needs no training in order to get it to work.

You don't need to be a Jedi to use a lightsaber, only to build one. See Ep V, where Han Solo uses Lukes lightsaber to cut open the tauntaun.

Re:Lightsaber Depot?

[yodaj007]

Yeah, thats right. It takes an adept user of the Force to build a lightsaber. Its one of the few things needed to qualify for Knighthood: you must construct your own lightsaber, and you must face the Dark Side but resist.

I'm a bit critical of the article, though. It indicates that there are little knobs you can use to adjust the blade length. From the standpoint of the books (namely, the Jedi Academy trilogy), the blade length is determined by the Crystal used. You can put multiple crystals inside the lightsaber (one Jedi, I forget the name, put three in his), but the Crystal selected is determined by which power switch you use, not by any knob. The aforementioned Jedi was able to switch his blade length and color using only the one hand he was holding the saber with. It didn't require two hands, and he could do it in the middle of combat.

The article hints at the knobs being able to adjust the length of the blade in a continuous fashion. From the books, it's clear that blade length adjustments are discrete, not continuous.

How to make your own saber...

[bundaegi]

Say you want a green saber. All you need is a signal generator in the terahertz region and a 1.5m antenna with a nice handle. Thanks to the formula

f=c/lambda

You find (for a 535nm green wavelength) f=3e8/535nm = 560THz (more colours converted to frequency in here [rattlesnake.com])

Now wack your sig generator amplitude up and watch your saber glowing green light. Wave around to impress the ladies. Fair enough, 500-600THz is a bit of a stretch in terms of technology... but we're getting there [physicsweb.org].

"Halo" is not a Ringworld, but an Orbital

[Mr. Mikey]

A ringworld is a ring of material that encircles a star, providing squillions of square miles of living space on its interior circumference. Examples of such are Larry Niven's "Ringworld" and Elf Sternberg's "Pendor". Orbitals are featured in the "Culture" books of Iain M. Banks. Here is a description of an orbital in the author's own words [bris.ac.uk]:

Perhaps the easiest way to envisage an Orbital is to compare it to the idea that inspired it (this sounds better than saying; Here's where I stole it from). If you know what a Ringworld is - invented by Larry Niven; a segment of a Dyson Sphere - then just discard the shadow-squares, shrink the whole thing till it's about three million kilometres across, and place in orbit around a suitable star, tilted just off the ecliptic; spin it to produce one gravity and that gives you an automatic 24-hour day-night cycle (roughly; the Culture's day is actually a bit longer). An elliptical orbit provides seasons.

"Halo" isn't a Ringworld, but an Orbital. The following magazine excerpt bears this out:

"Wait a minute," you might be thinking. Doesn't the premise of this game bear a striking resemblance to a certain series of books by sci-fi author Larry Niven? Designer and Bungie co-founder Jason Jones is uncomfortable with the notion that Halo might be some sort of Niven knockoff. "Ringworld's a great book, but the point is that we don't want people to think this is the game of Niven's Ringworld, simply because it takes place on a ring-shaped artificial world... you'd be surprised how often people assume this." Jones explains. "In Niven's books, the Ringworld completely encircles a star, and is thus hundreds of millions of miles in diameter, whereas Halo is just a satellite orbiting a gas giant and is considerably smaller. In fact, structurally it's more similar to the "orbitals" in Iain M. Banks' Culture novels."

You can find more information here [bungie.org].

Re:What about the color?

[lashi]

the Colour of the lightsabre is from the crystal used in its construction

Re:Cut, not Slash/Slice

[yuri benjamin]

thine enemies.

"thy" before a consonent.
"thine" before a vowel.

Just like "a" and "an".

Re:Cut, not Slash/Slice

[j-beda]

The Discovery Channel up in Canada [discoverychannel.ca] back around the time of episode one did a bunch of short bits on how Star Wars tech might actually work [www.exn.ca]. They interviewed a friend of mine, laser expert Dr. Marc Nantel from Photonics Research Ontario (PRO) [pro.on.ca], for the bit on lightsabers [exn.ca]. That piece generated a huge amount of viewer response, so they brought Marc back for a follow up, and a bunch of other on screen stuff unrelated to Star Wars. It looks like there now is a bit more on other possible mechanisms [www.exn.ca] on their site.

Marc says that after this interview, he got a lot of email at PRO from around the world asking about how to build a lightsaber. Apparently some European Star Wars fanzine stated that he was actually researching building an actual working light saber. Lots of people sent him notes asking for details, and some were very disappointed to learn that he was not pursuing such research.