The Light Saber

[PainRack]

I seem to recall there was a Saxton article on lightsabre too...

Anyone else remember this or am I smoking crack?

[PainRack]

Ah, found it.
Question: can a lightsabre block a turbolaser shot?


Probably. It depends on whether the damaging part of the bolt is thinner or thicker than the lightsabre beam. Even if it Even if the shot can be deflected, it might not be completely safe or comfortable for the lightsabre wielder to be close to the turbolaser shot. Luke Skywalker deflected fire from an AT-AT walker in the Dark Empire comic, which means that the effectual propagating part of an AT-AT laser cannon shot is thinner than a lightsabre. There remains an open question about whether or not Skywalker used a special Jedi power to dissipate side-effects of close proximity to the bolt. comic.
Qualification: In TESB we see that AT-AT guns have variable power settings (small shots for eliminating troops, "maximum firepower" for destroying structures like the power generator). We don't know what setting was used to attack Skywalker in Dark Empire; it might be the lower setting. Furthermore, we don't know whether the effective diameter of a bolt changes depending on the power level (for the shot against the power generator, the bolts were brighter, longer and greater in duration, but not necessarily wider).

Actually it has not been determined whether or not the effectual part of a blaster bolt has any thickness at all. It is possible that all bolts are microscopically thin, whether they come from a pistol or a Death Star. The apparent visible width may be due to nothing more than the glare spread on the observer's retina and/or movie film.

Question: How much momentum does a blaster bolt have?


Probably very little. When blaster shots are deflected off a lightsabre, the change of the bolt's momentum would be felt as a force on the lightsabre, which the wielder would feel through the coupling of the 'sabre beam to the hilt. Consider it like bullets being deflected off a sword: if blaster bolts had as much momentum as an Earthly bullet then Luke Skywalker's lightsabre would have been jarred visibly in his grip. Therefore shots from a blaster carry much less momentum than material shots from a primitive slugthrower weapon.
The fact that blaster shots are momentumless (or nearly so) does not mean that they lack energy. A beam of light, or low-mass elementary particles, can carry intense energy without having much momentum. (Many an insect has discovered this at the hands of a cruel child with magnifying glass.) The explosion when a blaster bolt hits a solid object is not due to impact. It is primarily due to the sudden heating and explosive vaporisation of the opaque matter. The small puff of violently expanding vapour (from the blaster wound or crater) pushes out in any unobstructed direction. That motion exerts a force on the surrounding solid object, like a recoil kick or the reaction of a rocket expelling burning fuel from its exhaust. That is why people and objects shot with blasters may be knocked over.

There is one interesting morbid consequence of all this. A person who is shot with a low-powered blaster shot (or who is wearing armour that absorbs the shot partially) has a crater wound only on the side nearest the firer, but a sufficiently high-powered shot will affect a column of flesh from one side to the other. The person in the former case may feel a more violent kick because the blasted material only expands in the forward direction, whereas the person who is shot right through has hot matter blasting out from both the entry and exit wounds.

Sometimes a recoil is felt in the firing blaster weapon, especially in the case of turbolasers where part of the cannon mechanism springs backwards with every shot. This would best be explained by some kind of explosive event inside the weapon. Flashes or air-bursts are indeed seen near the barrels of some blasters of the movies, especially stormtrooper blasters in ANH.

Question: can a lightsabre operate underwater?


In The Phantom Menace, Obi-Wan Kenobi's lightsabre was rendered inoperable when it became wet in the Naboo swamps. In the roleplaying game adventure Battle for the Golden Sun, provision was made for the use of lightsabres under the oceans of the planet Sedri, and their performance characteristics (in game terms) were altered. In Splinter of the Mind's Eye Luke Skywalker used his father's lightsabre underwater to cut the stems of raft-like waterplant leaves. In Vision of the Future, lightsabres were again used underwater.
This must indicate a difference of design. It could be a fashion innovation, perhaps devised to suit conditions of the Clone Wars (after TPM and during which Anakin built his weapon). It could could be a design trade-off: Kenobi's first weapon might emphasis efficiency, while Anakin's is better protected and more robust. It could be that Anakin's craftsmanship was superior. Other possibilities are imaginable; the question will probably remain open until/unless it is treated specifically in the upcoming prequels.

http://www.theforce.net/swtc/misc.html

[Purple]

Speaking of light sabers. Why do sith/dark jedi always use red ones? Is that a uniform thing like dictated by tradition or something or is it just a case of the new sith on the block looking at how all the cool masters use red so he goes along with it?

Is there any canon mention of people changing the colors of their sabers when they fall that actually tells us why?

[Eternal_Freedom]

In Dark Lord: The Rise of Darth Vader, it is mentioend that Sidious gave Vader a new synthetic lightsaber crystal for his weapon.

Later in the book Olee Starstone elaborates to Roan Shryne abot why Jedi traditionally avoid red baldes because of their association with the Sith, and that the red colour is made by the synthetic nature of the crystals.

My recollection may not be exact though, but I think that's the gist of it.

[Darth Tedious]

The Jedi are able to make synthetic crystals (Luke's RotJ saber used a synthetic crystal, as he was unable to get a real one and had to make do), but the good ones are the red ones produced with Sith alchemy.

Plus, red blades can (about one time in a million) actually disrupt and 'cut through' other blades. The off-chance of it happening is reason enough to stick with red, IMO.

[Ritterin Sophia]

There's a underwater saber in a Clone Wars episode, I believe-- Kit Fisto's.

Indeed. Additionally the New Jedi Order all use the water-proofed version. The Imperial Knights of the Legacy comics do as well judging by Treis Sinde's actions in waging an insurgency against the Krayt Imperials alongside the Mon Calamari Rangers and the fact that all the IKs use the exact same design. I believe the technology is, ridiculously, called Bifurcating Cyclical Ignition Pulse

As for deflecting turbolasers, I'm pretty sure I remember Jacen Solo doing that to some light turbolasers at one point between New Jedi Order and Legacy.

[aussiemuscle308]

wouldn't a standard light sabre boil the water around it? would look interesting.

the only instance i've seen of a large turbo laser hitting a sabre was a fan film where the protagonist got his x-wing to shoot the sith apprentice. first shot knock him over but damages his sabre.

[Darth Tedious]

wouldn't a standard light sabre boil the water around it? would look interesting.

Standard sabers short out if immersed in water, causing them to switch off.

[Ritterin Sophia]

wouldn't a standard light sabre boil the water around it? would look interesting.

If the handle isn't immersed in water, yes. The original Clone Wars miniseries depicted Anakin fighting Asajj on Yavin IV in a rainstorm, steam was depicted coming off his blade as the raindrops impacted on the 'blade'

the only instance i've seen of a large turbo laser hitting a sabre was a fan film where the protagonist got his x-wing to shoot the sith apprentice. first shot knock him over but damages his sabre.

That's not a turbolaser. A turbolaser is a capital-ship scale weapon, the heaviest unguided weapon the X-Wing has are four laser cannons. To give you an idea what you did was compare the equivalent of an M61 Vulcan to a Mk45 5-in cannon.

[Darth Tedious]

wouldn't a standard light sabre boil the water around it? would look interesting.

If the handle isn't immersed in water, yes. The original Clone Wars miniseries depicted Anakin fighting Asajj on Yavin IV in a rainstorm, steam was depicted coming off his blade as the raindrops impacted on the 'blade'

That effect was either missing or too small to notice when Obi-Wan fought Jango on Kamino in AotC.

[Ritterin Sophia]

That effect was either missing or too small to notice when Obi-Wan fought Jango on Kamino in AotC.

The Kaminoan storms, while constant, aren't always torrential downpours. The one we saw on Kamino was rather benign for a storm. By contrast Yavin IV was a rainforest, when it rains it rains hard.