Lightsabers Derek/Carter Episode III: Revenge of the Critics

In order to wield a lightsaber, one of the most dangerous weapons in the universe, one can simply go to their local supermarket and buy a light-up child’s toy (and batteries) that would visually amuse him/her for days. Or you could do what Harvard and MIT scientists did and accidentally create one. Well, actually, what they created was not exactly a Jedi’s weapon of choice, but instead a photon beam that acted as one. The article we talked about in post 2 proved that photons can in fact interact with each other. But this does not make lightsabers feasible, unless you consider majoring in physics at Harvard or MIT “Jedi Training”. 

Only highly trained scientists can operate this kind of energy at this point; and besides, part of the whole allure of a lightsaber is the hilt. Watching the colorful beam of light slowly rise out of the handle is as much a part of a lightsaber as any. And at this point in time in science, getting a controlled photon beam into a hilt is just not feasible.

http://www.physics.org/article-questions.asp?id=59

            This site brings up a lot of problems with the idea of infusing the photon beam with a handle such as creating a short enough blade, controlling the size, and perhaps most importantly, powering the beam. Unlike the toy replica, batteries would not be enough to power a real life lightsaber (this is really the only difference between the two). The only possible way to generate enough energy to power this weapon would be to plug it in to the mains socket. But I assume saber battles would be much less intense if you could not do all the cool jumping and dodging that Jedi do, and instead had to settle with standing right next to each other while you were charging your weapons. You could try unplugging the sabers and fighting with them after they are fully charged, but since photon lasers would burn through energy so quickly, it could turn into 20 second fight sessions, with constant hour-long recharge timeouts. And sizing issues will be a problem. How will these photon beams end. They are not like a stick or anything solid for that matter. They are simply just light beams. The beams used for lightsabers must have a set length created for the saber to actually be weapon and not just a glorified flashlight.

http://www.thenakedscientists.com/HTML/questions/question/3244/

            There is another problem that Carter and I thought of that has to do less with feasibility and more with affectivity. In the movies, the Jedi and their lightsabers dominate their gun-wielding foes. One Jedi can take out 100 gunmen (or gunwomen) just like that. But even if this weapon was created, in modern warfare it would not be effective. The quote “never bring a knife to a gunfight” fits perfectly with this situation. In the battlefield a Jedi would not stand a chance against highly trained soldiers. The only way a Jedi could beat a soldier in combat was if the soldier was this guy:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BnCuwpnwscE

The only difference would be that saying “your stepfather was slain by a Jedi” would sound a lot cooler than “your stepfather was run over by a steamroller”. But in all seriousness, hand to hand combat would always be trumped by gun fighting. The irony is when we were kids we thought lightsabers were so futuristic and high-tech, but on the battlefield they have the same qualities as swords: outdated and ineffective.

In the movies, George Lucas did not have to think about all these flaws in lightsabers, because he could just use “the force” as the excuse for everything. I mean, how could a 900 year old creature move like this?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZ3tLFUAlJo

The force. That’s how.

But Carter and I sought deeper for the truth, so we went to the most reliable place in the world to research our topic: The internet. We used multiple sites and conversed with each other what argument each site brought up and whether we agreed with it or not. Our initial thoughts were actually pretty accurate: Lightsabers may soon be feasible, but they are not yet.