flights of fancy

[cellio]

"Existentially speaking, is there such a thing as half a piece of cake?" -- kayre

This evening at dinner the fundamental dynamics of lightsabres came up. Specifically, how does the color encoding work? Is Luke's blue because Luke prefers blue, or because any lightsabre Luke uses will channel Luke-specific force, which is blue? If so, do the admission criteria at Jedi University include "sabre does not glow red" (and if not, why not)? Are there important qualitative difference between blue and green sabres, both of which appear to channel the light side of the force? Surely these are important research topics for someone out there who has, you know, seen all the movies.

Comments

lightsabres

[psu-jedi.livejournal.com]

What I know I know because I did my 11th grade chemistry paper on the SPFX of Star Wars, and how things would work if they were for real. And since that was, um, 20 years ago (holy crap!), and we all know how Lucas likes to play with his own universe, it's possible that this information is completely out of date.

BUT,

lightsabres are built by each Jedi, essentially they have to get their "sabre badge" as part of their trials. Sabre color is dependant on what kind of crystal is used as the main componant of the hilt, or the thing that garners the energy. In extended universe (so I guess this stuff is kinda up to date), Jedi could be drawn to the crystal that they used to make their sabres (if memory serves, we see this in Vol 1 of Clone Wars which was on the Cartoon Network). If that's the case, then it would make sense that Sith are drawn to those crystals that make a red glow, and that Jedi are drawn to those that make blue/green/purple, etc. Of course, we didn't see the purple sabre until EPI. Luke's first sabre was Anakin's, which Obi Wan somehow has(we haven't exactly seen how Obi Wan gets it, but I'm hoping we learn this in EPIII). It was blue. That was lost when Vader chopped Luke's hand at the end of ESB. Luke shows up with a new, GREEN, sabre in ROTJ. Again in extended universe, there's a book called "Shadow of the Empire" that came out in '96 or something like that, that is set in the 3-month time preiod between ESB and ROTJ. There's a chapter about how Luke returns to Ben's hut and constructs his new sabre. I only read the book once because, well, it pretty much sucked (it wasn't written by Tim Zahn, god of Star Wars EU!), but I do recall that.

There's also talk (can't remember from where/who) that each color does have a different strength to it, but I can't really talk to that. What I learned when I wrote my paper was that a laser sword is pretty much fantasy. A laser doesn't end after a meter, and for swords to "cancel" each other (i.e., hit), they'd have to be of the same color.

For those of you out there with a science background, feel free to correct me on that. The only reason I passed chem that year was because I wrote 2000 words for the paper when all we were supposed to write was 1500. 50 points extra credit pushed me to a "B" in the class, even though I pretty much failed my final. I hated chem. I loved movies (and still do!). So, yeah.

This is probably more than you wanted. And I'm not sure if it even answered your question. But it's what I could come up without having to delve into source material (ahhh! Actual research! Ahh! ;-)

Re: lightsabres

[geekosaur]

A laser doesn't end after a meter, and for swords to "cancel" each other (i.e., hit), they'd have to be of the same color.

In fact, there's no way known to (our) physics to accomplish either; the beams would (a) go on "forever" (or at least until they encountered an object, or ultimately until they finally diverged sufficiently) and (b) not be able to "hit" each other whether the same frequency or not. (And it doesn't help to invoke "force fields" to contain the beams; as far as our physics is concerned, they have precisely the same problems. In fact, a "force field" in real physics has essentially nothing to do with the SF concept. Magnetic and electrical fields are real-world physics "force fields", and the closest those get to the SF version is that, if strong enough, they can attract or repel non-ferromagnetic materials by interacting with particle "spins" (IIRC; "spin" not really being spin as we know it, but related to "magnetic moment") — which is how MRI scans work, among other things. Not quite what we're looking for....)

Of course, it's silly to argue this when they have even bigger contradictions of known physics, such as FTL travel. :)

Re: lightsabres

[(Anonymous)]

The beams of a lightsabre are linked nanite superconducting robots. That's why they buzz and end at a certain distance.

When they cut through a body, they eat it.

Rob of UnSpace (http://www.unspace.net/)

Re: lightsabres

[psu-jedi.livejournal.com]

Of course, it's silly to argue this when they have even bigger contradictions of known physics, such as FTL travel. :)

And let's not even get into the whole sound of Tie Fighters (and planets!) exploding cunundrum!

Re: lightsabres

[sethg]

The sounds of the explosions are generated by the X-Wing fighter's navigation computer. When the sensor array detects an explosion, the computer generates the appropriate sound in the pilot's headphones, so the pilot can tell where the explosion was without taking his eyes off his targets.