How does a lightsaber work

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Jose123
I heard That they are made up of very fast moving particles. When a lightsaber cuts into something, it's actually chipping away at the molecules that make up the object. the object actually melts because of the friction. This is also why lightsabers don't give off any heat. They actually have more in common with sandpaper than a blowtorch

Is this True?

Blind Guardian
I wouldn't say sandpaper. Lightsabers are excited matter which in turn excites anything it touches. For example, when Qui Gon Jinn is slicing through the door in The Phantom Menace, you notice that the metal is glowing and then melts down not as it's being cut but afterwards.

DarkC
I think it might be a straight bar of laser-induced plasma, enclosed within an electromagnetic envelope shaped by the hilt.

Captain REX
Most sources say laser-induced plasma with an electromagnetic shielding like DarkC said. Physical things can pass through the magnetic shielding and into the super-heated core.

BG's theory is also popular.

braz
yea, simply all a lightsaber is IMO is just plasma...with an unbelievable amount of kinetic energy given to it somehow and enclosed in the shape of a saber to where anything it touches, it goes str8 through it and tears apart the molecules...like for example if u think logically, u have ur 4 states of matter....solid, liquid, gas and plasma over 99% of the universe is plasma because of of the billions of stars which are so vast in size and are composed of hot gases all pulled together through the force of gravity as things came into existence billions of years ago...an example of plasma in its most common form: fire....u get fire in the shape of a saber somehow, concentrate so much kinetic energy into it to where anything it touches whether its a stick of butter or a 2 foot thick wall of steel, it goes str8 through it, and find out some way to retract and detract the beam by simply pressing a button on the handl

Captain REX
*realizes that the two theories are the same thing*

Plasma is the exciter. So...yeah...

DarkC
Originally posted by Captain REX
*realizes that the two theories are the same thing*

Plasma is the exciter. So...yeah...
Yeah. Molecules are moving a crapload at such a high temperature, so that would make sense.

Captain REX
Well, molecules moving fast is what makes the high temp... wink

Ushgarak
Endless speculation about this over time.

But BG's idea is in an area that looks deeper than the blade being hot- because that is at odds with what we see in the filmns, especially when Han activates it on Hoth and none of the nearby snow melts, so simple heat (and therefore it being a laser is out.)

Sabre nerd Bob Brown had eight different theories on his site about how a sabre could work.

chilled monkey
Originally posted by Ushgarak
Endless speculation about this over time.

But BG's idea is in an area that looks deeper than the blade being hot- because that is at odds with what we see in the filmns, especially when Han activates it on Hoth and none of the nearby snow melts, so simple heat (and therefore it being a laser is out.)

Sabre nerd Bob Brown had eight different theories on his site about how a sabre could work.

The blade has a magnetic field that stops it radiating heat.

SS_181st_Snow
Originally posted by Jose123
I heard That they are made up of very fast moving particles. When a lightsaber cuts into something, it's actually chipping away at the molecules that make up the object. the object actually melts because of the friction. This is also why lightsabers don't give off any heat. They actually have more in common with sandpaper than a blowtorch

Is this True?

This theory makes the most sense to me, since it explains how it can cut through a door (I.E. Qui-Gon cutting through the door), but the blades don't go through eachother or any other beam.

DrDoom101
Originally posted by Captain REX
*realizes that the two theories are the same thing*

Plasma is the exciter. So...yeah...

the blades are made of crystals right?

braz
^ yes, which can be used as magnifers much like conentrated lenses when adding kinetic energy like light to it and it exponentially builds into such a hot temperature, but still, at the same time has a magnetic field that keeps it from melting snow or w/e next to it

FistOfThe North
So what keeps the actual light beam from going all over the place or keep going straight as a flashlight would, a magnetic field? So how can it cut with this field in the way unless the field is penetrable and translucent. But how could that still be. The light or plasma itself would still escape if that were the case.

Clone-pilot
Does the button on the hilt have to be pressed down constantly while the sabre is in use or is it "one click on , one click off" ???

Clone-pilot
Originally posted by FistOfThe North
So what keeps the actual light beam from going all over the place or keep going straight as a flashlight would, a magnetic field? So how can it cut with this field in the way unless the field is penetrable and translucent. But how could that still be. The light or plasma itself would still escape if that were the case.

It's kind of like a torch , the beam of light from a torch travels in a straight line and nothing can bend it . I heard that the hilt has a crystal of some sort inside which intensifies the beam of particles into one concentrated laser beam . What generates these particles however I'm not so sure ....

Ogami Itto
Ask LIGHTSABER how it works!! he made one wink

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