Lightsabers

The lightsaber is one of the most powerful tools that a jedi or sith could wield. It consists of a metal hilt with an appropriately-sized power source inside that would use modulation circuits and an energy gate to draw power from the main component. This main component is called the kyber crystal which emmits a plasma beam enabling the user to deflect blaster bolts or even the sith's lighting bolts. Lightsabers are imposible to make in our reality but some have tried with only a few implicaitons. The first problem with making a lightsaber with the technology we currently have is restricting a laser/plasma beam without an object obstructing its path. Another flaw in desgining a lightsaber consists of the proper power source that would draw that amount of energy to power such a powerful weapon. Lastly, which I believe is the biggest problem with designing a lightsaber, would be creating a laser or plasma that would allow two indiviuals to fight. The complication is the fact that the two lasers/plamas beams are able to pass through each other making it hard to have a lightsaber dual. With all this aside, what would be the power output of a lightsaber if it was a posible device to make? On the Wookieepedia for lightsabers it says that it could slice through any material besides the hide of a zillo beast, so what kind of energy does this weapon have? Using the formulas Q=mC(delta)T and P=(delta)E/(delta)T and a few assumptions by using a black body simulator to approximate the temperature of the lightsaber, it could be calculated that the power of a lightsaber was 28*10^3 W and 2.016*10^8 J of energy. For comparison, it takes about 1500 W of power to cut through a sheet of steel, so by having the power of upwards 28 kW I believe that if this kind of energy could be contained Qui-Gon Jinn is more than capable of cutting down this door.

http://scienceblogs.com/dotphysics/2010/02/02/power-source-for-a-lightsaber/

Lightsabers

Website made by Brandon Abbott for Physics 212x section F04