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Mailing List Logs for ShadowRN

Message no. 1
From: JOHANNA BURWELL-KALES <burwell@******.EDU>
Subject: Re: Lightsabers....
Date: Sat, 25 Jun 1994 00:25:36 -0700
I thought this was interesting. With the laser advances in FoF,
does anyone think that it would be plausable to make an SRII Lightsaber.
I.E. Star Wars. Theoreticlly, it would be pure enrgy and thus slice
through any thing no matter what the armor, at least that is what it is
suposedly like in the movies.
Message no. 2
From: MILLIKEN DAMION A <u9467882@***.EDU.AU>
Subject: Re: Lightsabers....
Date: Sun, 26 Jun 1994 01:58:49 +1000
The same unknown person writes this:

> I thought this was interesting. With the laser advances in FoF,
> does anyone think that it would be plausable to make an SRII Lightsaber.
> I.E. Star Wars. Theoreticlly, it would be pure enrgy and thus slice
> through any thing no matter what the armor, at least that is what it is
> suposedly like in the movies.

No.
A laser beam such as generated by the weapons in FoF and a solid laser
lightsaber are only _very_ remotely similar. For starters, how to you get a
laser beam solid enought to hit someone? And how do you get the light to
stay in a sword shape and not just shoot off?
Theoretically it would be pure energy, and yes, it would pretty much slice
thru anything, but you wont get it, so its not worth worrying about.

Damion
Message no. 3
From: "Robert A. Hayden" <hayden@******.MANKATO.MSUS.EDU>
Subject: Re: Lightsabers....
Date: Sat, 25 Jun 1994 11:48:54 +0100
On Sat, 25 Jun 1994, JOHANNA BURWELL-KALES wrote:

> I thought this was interesting. With the laser advances in FoF,
> does anyone think that it would be plausable to make an SRII Lightsaber.
> I.E. Star Wars. Theoreticlly, it would be pure enrgy and thus slice
> through any thing no matter what the armor, at least that is what it is
> suposedly like in the movies.

I doubt it would work like in the movies. A laser of any kind is fairly
easy to deflect, and never as effective as seen in the movies without
MEGA power behind it.

____ Robert A. Hayden <=> hayden@******.mankato.msus.edu
\ /__ -=-=-=-=- <=> -=-=-=-=-
\/ / Finger for Geek Code Info <=> I do not necessarily speak for the
\/ Finger for PGP Public Key <=> City of Mankato or Blue Earth County
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
(GEEK CODE 1.0.1) GAT d- -p+(---) c++(++++) l++ u++ e+/* m++(*)@ s-/++
n-(---) h+(*) f+ g+ w++ t++ r++ y+(*)
Message no. 4
From: Ken Dye <kdye@*****.STANFORD.EDU>
Subject: Re: Lightsabers....
Date: Sat, 25 Jun 1994 09:49:30 -0700
You know, i came up with how tobuild a real world light saber.
Here it is.
You got a handle that emits a damaging laser straight out. You
have a small mirror mounted on a long metal rod the laser shoots at the
mirror and bounces back to another mirror mounted on the handle. ten the
beam bounces back and forth creating a semi- lightsaber
PS. I was not really sane when I came up with this.

"Light saber in hand, he slices through the butter..."

MercenaryX
Message no. 5
From: "Seth A. Buntain" <enthar@***.EDU>
Subject: Re: Lightsabers....
Date: Sat, 25 Jun 1994 14:54:38 -0500
>
> I thought this was interesting. With the laser advances in FoF,
> does anyone think that it would be plausable to make an SRII Lightsaber.
> I.E. Star Wars. Theoreticlly, it would be pure enrgy and thus slice
> through any thing no matter what the armor, at least that is what it is
> suposedly like in the movies.
>

I love the term 'pure energy'. Most likely, given the our current
understanding, and a few advances, Lightsabers would consist of a plasma
'blade' held in place by a powerful magnetic bottle produced by the handle.
For the blade to imitate the movies, the magnetic field would have to be so
strong as to severly limit the discharge of heat from the plasma. Thus,
anything that broke through the magnetic bottle would be fried in the
characteristic way shown (no blood from Lukes lost hand, due to
cauterization). Course, power supply is a problem or not, depending on what
level of technology we are considering. Given all this, it shouldnt be _too_
hard to produce one. Likely would be a bit better than the mono whip, with a
slightly less chance of hurting yourself if you screw up.

--
Seth Buntain | "You will find that a great many of the truths
Enthar the Eternal | that we cling to depend greatly on our own point
email: enthar@***.edu | of view" --Obi Wan Kenobi
(V 1.01) GE d -p+ c++ l u e+(*) m(++) s/- !n h- f+ g- w+ t+(++) r+(++) !y
"It's a damn poor man who can't spell a wyrd in more than one way!"
-Thomas Jefferson
My opinions, comments and even facts are all mine.
Message no. 6
From: Adam Getchell <acgetche@****.UCDAVIS.EDU>
Subject: Lightsabers
Date: Sat, 25 Jun 1994 15:49:19 -0700
"Lightsabers" aren't a very practical weapon I'm afraid.
If you make it out of a laser, as Robert Hayden pointed out it
would require *lots* of joule's to make it worthwhile. And a mirror on a
long pole wouldn't work because there are no perfect mirrors, and the 1%
energy the mirror absorbs would be enough to fry the reflective coating
off the surface. This would lead to a cascade effect: the more coating
fried, the more energy absorbed --> the more coating fried, until the
resultant which would be a cloud of plasma.
A plasma light saber would be even less likely, because strong,
tight magnetic bottles require coils of superconducting wire, which would
have to be where the blade is and would therefore defeat the purpose of
the weapon. Even if it were possible to make a strong magnetic bottle
with just the handle, striking someone with it would puncture it spilling
all the plasma out, and plasma in a diffuse stream isn't nearly as
effective as if you just made a plasma gun.
You can, with adaptive optics, make lasers that focus on a point,
making the beam of limited length, but again most practical lasers are of
pulse design to maximize energy transfer and steam explosion of tissues,
so it's just better to make a laser gun. The laser crescent axe in
Street Samurai Catalog is about the best one could do, and even that's
pushing it a bit. Also, beam power has to do with focal array size and a
lightsaber wouldn't have too much in that department.

+-------------+---------------------------------------------------------------+
|Adam Getchell|acgetche@****.engr.ucdavis.edu | ez000270@*******.ucdavis.edu |
| acgetchell |"Invincibility is in oneself, vulnerability is in the opponent"|
+-------------+---------------------------------------------------------------+
Message no. 7
From: "C. Paul Douglas" <granite@*****.NET>
Subject: Re: Lightsabers....
Date: Sat, 25 Jun 1994 22:33:10 -0400
Y

On Sat, 25 Jun 1994, Seth A. Buntain wrote:
......> understanding, and a few advances, Lightsabers would consist of a
plasma
> 'blade' held in place by a powerful magnetic bottle produced by the handle.
> For the blade to imitate the movies, the magnetic field would have to be so
> strong as to severly limit the discharge of heat from the plasma. Thus,
> anything that broke through the magnetic bottle would be fried in the
...... slightly less chance of hurting yourself if you screw up.
>
But then you probably wouldn't need to worry too much about hurting
yourself with the blade since prolonged exposure to the heavy duty
magnetic field produced would do its own damage...
----------------GRANITE

Further Reading

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