Is a Lightsaber a Practical Weapon?
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Technically, according to the cannon, a lightsaber would be way worse at that, since the blade is weightless, and therefore does not act as a counter weight to the hilt, making the whole thing terribly unbalanced.S.R.S. said:
To help that, the blade also would probably give you little to no physical feedback against most materials (particularly human flesh)... so you'd probably cut through yourself before your hand noticed you hit anything.
That said, ironically, most, if not all, of our current weapons would easily kill a "cannon" Jedi. Jedis are good at deflecting the slow-moving energy projectiles that compose most of their universe's weapons, but a bullet moves at a much higher speed. Not to mention refire rate. Something like a P90 would shred a Jedi before they even lined up their blade.
Not a good weapon choice. Rocket launchers are heavy and cumbersome, you really would want to give up as little mobility as possible as range would be your main advantage.mrhappyface said:
Adding to that rockets aren't the most effective things against jedis... They're slower than energy projectiles, making them easier to avoid, and the rockets can be pushed away with force.
@Thread: Best option in the star wars universe would generally be blasters. The problem with blasters and jedis is that most of the time in the Star Wars universe the people wielding the blasters are complete bumbling idiots who either couldn't hit the side of a moon or seem to be aiming exactly at the same spot everytime and shooting as slowly as they can, while pacing horribly slowly towards their own death.
Most real guns would easily kill a Jedi.
Heh, if it where a real life weapon would have to aquire super natural powers in order to use it to any degree of sucess against a bloke with a firearm. You would have to disregard the laws of physics, and tolerate the fact that a lightsaber would be (i imagine) overly bottom heavy, making wielding it a bit awkward.
Something having molten parts fly at you doesn't really matter on swing speed. It is going to melt and splatter. People claim that the lightsaber is insanely hot and thus able to cut through anything with lightning speed, the problem with that however is that an object like that would definitely be radiating heat itself, making it damn near hard to hold, hell I bet the hilt itself would be glowing red or white.Ultra_Caboose said:
Ok say the blade somehow instantly turns a physical object from solid to gas (despite various scenes from the movies which show items clearly doing more of a melt instead of burn to gas) that is a reaction that is going to leave the air around the person incredibly hot, possibly steam that is hot enough to burn the person.
There has to be forces on the blade, in games and moves if they hit a wall or the ground it doesn't just instantly cut through anything, it clearly has some rebounding effect, further proof is in episode 1, Qui-Gon is cutting through the door, he is physically pushing down on the blade with effort, he isn't just casually holding it there and letting the door melt.
And lightsaber hitting lightsaber, if it was just pure magic energy there is no reason a lightsaber should block another lightsaber, they should pass through each other, hell you see jedi vs sith battles and one or the other bashes the other one down while he or she is blocking, a clear transfer of forces. Also in some of the books discussing jedi training, apparently the blade can have its lethality changed, apparently the low setting turns it into a bashing like weapon.
Things from movies are great, but like anyone who has watched the mythbusters for any amount of time, you come to realize that physics is a huge downer, you just can't wielding amazing forces without huge draw backs.
Getting the light to stop is theoretically feasible - it would just take the correct manipulation of constructive and destructive interference.
The main problem is power.
Here's some rough numbers -
Energy required to melt/vaporise a 100g bullet made from lead -
specific heat capacity of lead = 0.13kJ/kg
melting pt of lead = 600K
boiling pt of lead = 2013K
assuming the bullet arrives at 373K (100°C)
E = m * c * deltaT
= 0.1 * 0.13 * (600 - 373) = 2.951 kJ to melt
= 0.1 * 0.13 * (2013 - 373) = 21.32 kJ to vaporise
now lets have the bullet coming from a berreta 92G-SD
muzzle velocity is ~380m/s
and assume the lightsabre has a blade width of 5cm
transit time of the bullet through the beam - so time for the bllet to melt/vaporise
t = s / v
= 0.05 / 380
= 1.32*10^-4 s
This means the power output from a lightsabre
P = (E / t )
= ( 2.951 / 1.32*10^-4) = 22356kW = 22.356MW to melt a bullet
= ( 21.32 / 1.32*10^-4) = 161515kW = 161.5MW to vaporise a bullet
To put this in perspective, Sellafield nuclear power station in GB produces 200MW.
So to vaporise a bullet as some people on here claim, each jedi would have to lug around his/her/its own nuclear power plant.
hardly practical.
The main problem is power.
Here's some rough numbers -
Energy required to melt/vaporise a 100g bullet made from lead -
specific heat capacity of lead = 0.13kJ/kg
melting pt of lead = 600K
boiling pt of lead = 2013K
assuming the bullet arrives at 373K (100°C)
E = m * c * deltaT
= 0.1 * 0.13 * (600 - 373) = 2.951 kJ to melt
= 0.1 * 0.13 * (2013 - 373) = 21.32 kJ to vaporise
now lets have the bullet coming from a berreta 92G-SD
muzzle velocity is ~380m/s
and assume the lightsabre has a blade width of 5cm
transit time of the bullet through the beam - so time for the bllet to melt/vaporise
t = s / v
= 0.05 / 380
= 1.32*10^-4 s
This means the power output from a lightsabre
P = (E / t )
= ( 2.951 / 1.32*10^-4) = 22356kW = 22.356MW to melt a bullet
= ( 21.32 / 1.32*10^-4) = 161515kW = 161.5MW to vaporise a bullet
To put this in perspective, Sellafield nuclear power station in GB produces 200MW.
So to vaporise a bullet as some people on here claim, each jedi would have to lug around his/her/its own nuclear power plant.
hardly practical.
Sorry, was trying to point out how many people were commenting who had no martial arts training and were talking out of their ass.solidstatemind said:
I think it could certainly be a practical weapon if you were trained to use it properly. If not, then you're likely seriously injure yourself, however.
If you have the Force, you are unstoppable with a lightsaber unless you get hit with a sneak attack (or Order 66), but even then there's no certainty. If you didn't have the Force, you could still use it, but it wouldn't be as effective.
Oh, and OP. Jedi would jump over the rocket.
Oh, and OP. Jedi would jump over the rocket.
Well lightsabers arent actually made out of light, they are made out of some sort of plasma, i was confused about that tooEcher123 said:
lightsaber has no heft and would be insanely hard to handle, now you take into consideration that if it touches you your gonna get fucked up. I would say a lazer gun would be much preferable to a lightsaber unless you had the force and could wield it properly. oh and the light part of the light saber folds back onto itself at the point and returns to the hilt. that is why it doesn't continue going.
No light sabers are not practical, a beam of light would never be able to controled into a heat light that could cut off your arm. All it can do is get in you eyes.
