Lightsaber thread

Discussion in 'Gaming + Technology' started by Roflcopter Rogers, Dec 26, 2015.

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  1. Roflcopter Rogers

    Roflcopter Rogers Least From The East Platinum VIP

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    Yep I think a highly concentrated 700 fps butane spraying lightsaber would be the simplest solution to a light saber. You can put your ideas below.
     
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  2. Taki'Asha

    Taki'Asha Community Member

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    If it was possible, you could probably make a laser that can go thru flesh with a metal bit somehow held at the top to stop the beam, but that would be a waste of resources and easy to break.
    It is also probably possible if you use the '2nd generation' of light sabers, which was a light saber with a large tube on the bottom, that connects to a large power pack on the back, Idk how that would work though...
     
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  3. Roflcopter Rogers

    Roflcopter Rogers Least From The East Platinum VIP

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    What light saber do you mean by Second Generation?
     
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  4. jeffreythe00

    jeffreythe00 Dreamer

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    Butane would not work due to the fact that there would not be enough power density. Butane only burns when it is in vapor form and the more dense it is, the closer it gets to being a liquid which is your bottleneck. You would also not be able to cut through metal or similar dense materials very easily which is why they use an oxygen/acetylene mix for cutting torches. Plus you can cut through metal like butter with plasma. Plasma is a 4th state of matter as it has properties that are much different than a solid, liquid or gas. Google plasma cutters.

    Plasma is probably the best candidate for making a lightsaber from our current technology. Harnessing it in something as small as a lightsaber handle is something that would prove very difficult with today's technology. In order to produce a steady stream of plasma, you would first need a way to stabilize it as plasma doesn't like to exist for very long and only under specific conditions. Plasma cutters do it by using argon gas to lengthen the plasma arc. So it might be possible to have a small canister of compressed argon in the handle. Power is another issue.

    Plasma requires a lot of power in order to be produced. So you would likely need a nuclear power cell of some sort in order to create an arc. How you would achieve something like this and keep the core cool is beyond me. Nuclear cores are probably the best option as far as outputting truckloads of power goes and the amount of potential plasma it could create would be huge. However you're left with issues like, containing the radiation, keeping the core from melting down and going BOOM and design of the plasma arc generator. There aren't many materials we have currently that can stand up to the high temps of plasma except "maybe" graphene.

    I don't think we really have the technology to produce a lightsaber with our current technology. Maybe if our research with quantum mechanics advances we might be able to cobble something together.
     
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  5. Roflcopter Rogers

    Roflcopter Rogers Least From The East Platinum VIP

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    As seen in the butane burning light saber, would jet fuel possibly work as a better burning substance if we were going the fueled route? I know plasma would probably be the best way to go, but as a house hold object a gas burning one would be the best (for common uses around the house).
     
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  6. jeffreythe00

    jeffreythe00 Dreamer

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    I mean, if you didn't want to replicate a lightsaber 1:1 you could certainly use something like butane to create the appearance of a real lightsaber. Doing so would require quite a bit of engineering. Certainly more than I am willing to admit lol. It still won't "look like" the movies (kinda how the one you linked was). You'll obviously be able to tell its different. Getting a fatter beam would require more fuel, requiring a bigger reservoir leaving you less space for crucial components.
     
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  7. Taki'Asha

    Taki'Asha Community Member

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    I call it the '2nd generation' because Jedi Knights first used enchanted swords, then used a type of lightsaber, but it had a cord in the butt of it, that went to a power pack and it being the 2ND version of it, the 3rd being the ones we know today.

    This is why the 2nd generation light sabers would be useful, you can stuff every thing in the back pack of it, it wouldn't be that practical but it would be more possible.
     
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  8. Roflcopter Rogers

    Roflcopter Rogers Least From The East Platinum VIP

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    Yes, the beam wouldn't be the most important part, I just really like the butane one as a solution for now until we can harness the plasma without arcing.
     
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  9. jeffreythe00

    jeffreythe00 Dreamer

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    I have a theory to how that lightsaber works. I may be wrong but bare with me. The whole goal is to turn the fuel into an aerosol. A sort of flame thrower if you will. The acetone is highly flammable and will turn into a vapor very quickly whereas methanol is a bit heavier and is a bit less flammible. The butane is a gas so it can be compressed.

    Adding the acetone helps get the methanol lit, and the butane acts as the aerosol which pressurizes the fuel chamber allowing it to push out the fuel. How they managed to concentrate it into that thin flame is beyond me but it may have something to do with the acetone/methanol mix.

    Now, if we're talking 2nd gen lightsabers. it may be practical as you can stuff a whole lot of fuel into a backpack. Meaning you can get higher pressures.
     
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  10. IceSeasons

    IceSeasons Dedicated Member

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    Not much significant scientific breakthrough have occurred in plasma research, since using plasma would require a very high temperature for it to work and that materials that can withstand fusion can only be used for the production of lightsabers.

    Using acetone as a form of "activation energy" to ignite the methanol is ideal theoretically, but it will be unsustainable in practical situations since a lot of methanol gas needs to be compressed and that since it deviates far from ideality (presence of intermolecular forces between the molecules), you can pretty expect your compressed methanol molecules to slowly liquify and then solidify due to the high amounts of methanol required to power up the lightsaber. Remember that a higher pressure would cause the intermolecular forces to be stronger, which will ultimately affect its melting / boiling points and its state.

    TL;DR: The theory only works if both gases are ideal in real-life situations. They are not.
     
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  11. Taki'Asha

    Taki'Asha Community Member

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    Thank you! Someone understands!
     
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  12. jeffreythe00

    jeffreythe00 Dreamer

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    ^At which point its essentially a miniature flamethrower rather than a lightsaber.
     
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  13. Taki'Asha

    Taki'Asha Community Member

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    Heres a 3rd generation (modern) light saber cut away:
    http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net...cutaway.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20051113041259

    EDIT: The 2nd gen. lightsabers are known as 'protosabers'

    Also, one of the light sabers in older times was black, and it had a back metal thing, with a metal tip, showing that a metal top can be used to stop the laser, thus if we can make a 3rd gen light saber, and cant control the tip we can use that to stop the laser!
     
    Last edited: Dec 26, 2015
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  14. jeffreythe00

    jeffreythe00 Dreamer

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    If you can manage to terminate the beam of a laser, combined with the backpack style of the 2nd gen lightsaber it is possible to have a portable lightsaberish-energyweapon-thingamajig. I don't know what the limitations are when it comes to backpack designs but I'd imagine 100W-200W worth of energy might be doable. A fiber optic cable to the "hilt" would certainly be possible but at about a 20%-30% loss of your total output.
     
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  15. Taki'Asha

    Taki'Asha Community Member

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    If you can make the beam hot enough, then the metal backing of something like a darksaber with a metal tip to control the size would be useable, but if it is not then you could potentially damage the metal backing and eventually have a rogue laser...
     
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  16. jeffreythe00

    jeffreythe00 Dreamer

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    Carbon would be your answer there. Carbon has the highest melting point by far - 3550 degrees C! Graphene seems to even surpass that. With a laser, you can manipulate the beam with lenses making the beam, bigger smaller, eliptical, flat ect.

    Here is an example of what an ideal backpack setup would look like to get an idea. You can combine many lasers into 1 beam and focus that beam into a fiber.

    [[​IMG]
     
    Last edited: Dec 26, 2015
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