{"id":12339,"date":"2022-05-04T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-05-03T22:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/?post_type=purple_issue&p=12339"},"modified":"2022-05-11T11:12:12","modified_gmt":"2022-05-11T09:12:12","slug":"how-can-i-get-a-real-lightsaber","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/2022\/05\/04\/how-can-i-get-a-real-lightsaber\/","title":{"rendered":"How can I get a real lightsaber?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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How can I get a real lightsaber?<\/span><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

With Obi-Wan Kenobi <\/em>hitting Disney+, we want to know the feasibility of the Jedi weapon of choice<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

by STEPHEN<\/strong> KELLY<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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T<\/span>he lightsaber. For fans of Star Wars, <\/em>samurai movies and accidentally cutting your own arm off, it has long been \u201can elegant weapon, for a more civilised age\u201d (your childhood). And with the premiere of Disney+\u2019s Obi-Wan Kenobi <\/em>this May, it seems safe to assume that we\u2019re about to see a lot more of them. But while every big kid has at one point or another swung a big broom around the house while going \u2018vwommm\u2019, is there any way lightsabers could ever become a reality? Well, to answer that, we need to first figure out what a lightsaber is.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Physicist Patrick Johnson, an associate teaching professor at Georgetown University and author of The Physics Of Star Wars, <\/em>suggests two options.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe first is that it is exactly what it is described as, a sabre made of light, a laser sword,\u201d he says. \u201cThe problem with it being a laser, though, is that because photons move at the speed of light, the laser will just keep going until it runs into something. Lasers don\u2019t stay in a self-contained beam.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The more plausible option, says Johnson, is that lightsabers are made of plasma, the electrically charged gas that makes up lightning and the Sun. Plasma cutting machines are often used in manufacturing to slice through materials such as steel.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPlasma is hot enough to melt metal, it can change colour depending on the material you\u2019re using and is able to cauterise wounds, just like in the movies,\u201d explains Johnson. \u201cBut the problem is that it\u2019s really, really hot. We\u2019re talking about holding something that is the temperature of the Sun in your hand, which is not going to be pleasant for you without special equipment.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is also the matter of size. Portable plasma cutters are bulky because they need to be attached to a container filled with fuel and a cooling mechanism. And even then, the beams that they produce are typically only a few millimetres long.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The reason for this is perhaps the biggest obstacle standing between you and a fully operational movie-style lightsaber. Because plasma is essentially a soup of ions and electrons, creating a self-contained beam is a big challenge.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou can have a jet that\u2019s shooting out really hot plasma in front of you,\u201d says Johnson, \u201cbut you\u2019re going to almost certainly run out of fuel pretty quickly, because all the stuff you shoot out has to come from somewhere. What you need is plasma that is self-contained and typically the way we would do that is with a magnetic field, but magnetic fields make things go in circles rather than in beams. You might be able to create a very thin elliptical shape that could approximate a beam, but you would have to really work to distort the magnetic field.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some people have come close to replicating the look of a lightsaber. Last year, Canadian engineer and YouTuber James Hobson used tanks of liquid propane gas and oxygen to create an impressive beam of lightsaber-esque plasma. But as Johnson says, replications like these are \u201cessentially nothing but a fancy cr\u00e8me br\u00fbl\u00e9e torch.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

For example, such plasma lightsabers would be incapable of having a duel with another lightsaber. \u201cBecause they are made up of charged particles, the two plasmas would just end up being attracted to each other and become one,\u201d he says. \u201cIt would be like expecting soup to clash with other soup.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

So alas, it seems as though our dreams of becoming a lightsaber-wielding Jedi knight like Obi-Wan Kenobi are as dead as he is. But Johnson has hope. \u201cThe computers of the 1950s took up entire rooms,\u201d he says. \u201cI would never say never.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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VERDICT<\/span><\/strong>
For now, we\u2019ll have to make do with swinging a broom around our heads and making our own lightsaber sound effects.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

by STEPHEN KELLY<\/strong>
(<\/span>@StephenPKelly<\/a><\/em>) Stephen is a culture and science writer, specialising in television and film.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div><\/section>\n\n

ILLUSTRATIONS: ADAM GALE; MAIN ILLUSTRATION: JOE WALDRON<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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