Sith happens! [Caution: Thread contains movie spoilers]

[Skoons]

Always wish to ask, what spead has laser beam. Always thought it might be speed of light

[cilu]

Visible light is just a form of electromagnetic wave. All electromagnectical waves propagate with the same speed, known as the speed of light, because it was determined first for the light.

[RoboTact]

Always wish to ask, what spead has laser beam. Always thought it might be speed of light

Just one more issue to argue about. Their speed is not great, but evidently suffucient enough not to miss fren firing in approximately massive object unable to change its cource too quick. Yet, they fail to fire on many occasions, and even when not, they miss most of the time...

P.S. I'm talking about SW "light beam"... Laser - yes, laser beam is just light as any other, only lighting in certain pattern. Laser=light aplification by stimulated emission of radiation.

[Ljais]

Just cant understand one little thing. Why the star ship in the SW epidode 3 when it was attacked by havy guns and got damages, begin to move down.

Apparently, there was an explosion in the spacecraft that produced enough force to break the ship in two. The force acting at the center of the ship caused an acceleration of the front half in the forward direction, and an acceleration of the back half in the backward direction. (Remember Isaac Newton and F=ma?). The acceleration in the backward direction is what people call deceleration. In orbit, when an object decelerates, it immediately moves to a lower orbit. Simple physics. However, the ships in Star Wars don't need to be in orbit since they have propulsion systems which seem to defy gravity anyway. So if their propulsion systems were damaged in the explosion, and they weren't in orbit, then we see the same results.

ON LIGHT SABERS:
The light sabers shown in the films cannot be simply light, or lasers, since photons do not act like particles with mass when they interact. So when two people are fighting with light sabers, one light saber could not block another light saber simply because their beams of light meet, as would happen if they were made of steel. There has to be another mechanism besides light that gives the light saber its "mass-like" characteristics. Perhaps the light saber is a force field generator that operates around a telescoping rod in the center, and it produces a cylindrical-shaped force field powerful enough to be driven through mass and can cause the molecules of the mass to separate, giving the appearance of being cut by a sword. The inside of the force field could be fluorescing like a fluorescent lamp tube, which would give it its light-like appearance. There is no current knowledge of physics to explain the function of the light saber. Also its seemingly unlimited energy supply. How can such a small device pack enough energy to melt the steel in the blast doors (Qui Gon Jinn - Ep. I)? It wouldn't be too difficult to calculate the energy needed to melt a given mass of steel based on its latent heat of transformation. I don't think the Illum crystals used in the light sabers, or any form of matter, contain enough intrinsic energy in so small a space to provide the energy needed for that. (unless the matter in the Illum crystals are being converted to energy (but how?) and we use E=mc²). Again, There is no current knowledge of physics to explain the function of the light saber.


ON SPACE TRAVEL:
I agree with the interstellar space travel described by Doctor Luz. Most physicists nowadays agree that if we are ever going to be able to travel through great distances in space, we will have to take advantage of more than just three dimensions.

===================================================
There once was a young man named Dwight
Whose speed was much faster than light;
He set out one day
In a "relative" way
And returned on the previous night.

[cilu]

When it comes to light saber I believe we just have to think outside the box of today's physics. I'm sure that George Lucas never intended to find an explanation to the light saber in our physics.

[RoboTact]

Is there a box?

[cilu]

Is there a box?

At least one...

[Pinky98]

When it comes to light saber I believe we just have to think outside the box of today's physics. I'm sure that George Lucas never intended to find an explanation to the light saber in our physics.

Well, if you think about it... light does exhibit properties of mass (gravitational effects, force up on collision), and so if enough photons are projected together (in phase) then it would eventually reach a stage when they exhibit sufficient physical mass properties as to ineract with sorrounds. I'm sure it wouldn't take too much energy probably only a couple of gigawatts.

Conversely, it could well be a simple case of anti-matter. (This would explain why they physically stop each others "blade" but can be thrust into physical media like doors). If one could produce about 1mg of anti matter it should exhibit roughly the same energy (upon colliding with matter) as about 3 tons of matter undergoing nuclear fission, hence only a small mass of anti matter would be required to "cut" or otherwise destory matter. The "blade" which we see is simple the super heated (and hence plasma-rised) air, surrounding the antimatter beam, which is radiating light due to the collisions between the air molecules and anti-matter atoms. (Although it should be noted that anti matter may or may not occur in the form of atoms). In order to produce this anti-matter beam all that would be required is to irradiate a sufficient matter source with energy (in what ever form.. mass or photonic). The collision would produce anti-matter by-product. So there needs to be a sufficient source in saber as well as an energy source to provide the collision. The balde would be of finite length because the antimatter beam woul only reach so far before all anti-matter has been destoryed by surrounding matter. It would also explain why the blade "folds out" as the saber is turned on!

[Doctor Luz]

Well, if you think about it... light does exhibit properties of mass (gravitational effects, force up on collision), and so if enough photons are projected together (in phase) then it would eventually reach a stage when they exhibit sufficient physical mass properties as to ineract with sorrounds. I'm sure it wouldn't take too much energy probably only a couple of gigawatts.

Indeed light have mass, the energy of a single photon is E=mc² but is also hf where h is the planck constant and f is the frequency. You can obtain the mass from here.

But you never will make the beams to block another beam even with billions and billions of gigawatts. That is not how light behaves.

Conversely, it could well be a simple case of anti-matter. (This would explain why they physically stop each others "blade" but can be thrust into physical media like doors). If one could produce about 1mg of anti matter it should exhibit roughly the same energy (upon colliding with matter) as about 3 tons of matter undergoing nuclear fission, hence only a small mass of anti matter would be required to "cut" or otherwise destory matter. The "blade" which we see is simple the super heated (and hence plasma-rised) air, surrounding the antimatter beam, which is radiating light due to the collisions between the air molecules and anti-matter atoms.

thus annihilating the poor jedi and every Tom, ****, and Harry on many meters arround.

If anti-matter meets matter does not cut it, they destroy each other generating gamma particles wich will make you bald.

And how is the anti-matter kept? The body of the light saber is made of matter...

(Although it should be noted that anti matter may or may not occur in the form of atoms). In order to produce this anti-matter beam all that would be required is to irradiate a sufficient matter source with energy (in what ever form.. mass or photonic). The collision would produce anti-matter by-product. So there needs to be a sufficient source in saber as well as an energy source to provide the collision. The balde would be of finite length because the antimatter beam woul only reach so far before all anti-matter has been destoryed by surrounding matter. It would also explain why the blade "folds out" as the saber is turned on!

I see, So the light sabers are really, linear particle acelerators. Bad design.
You can use the energy generator to directly blast your enemies.

But It's a nice idea. You have lot of imagination.

[cilu]

I propose to mail these ideas to George Lucas. Maybe he can exploit them...

The explanations I've seen so far go way beyond the imagination of Lucas...

[Norfy]

The explanations I've seen so far go way beyond the imagination of Lucas

Better that we don't have explanations, they will only sound stupid in the future.

[Doctor Luz]

Better that we don't have explanations, they will only sound stupid in the future.

Is more funny to have explanations. Don't you think so?

[Norfy]

Is more funny to have explanations. Don't you think so?

As long as they don't make it onto the "big screen".

Imagine if Obi Wan had explained to Luke that his light saber was in fact a LASER saber...we would laugh/cry everytime we watched Star Wars.

[Pinky98]

But you never will make the beams to block another beam even with billions and billions of gigawatts. That is not how light behaves.

No, for sure. Fully. I also had that thought. Hence can't really believe that light sabres use photonic light.

thus annihilating the poor jedi and every Tom, ****, and Harry on many meters arround.

Yeah... if you use to much... but all you need to do is cut down on the amount of antimatter. You probably only looking at using a few nano to micro grams of the stuff.

If anti-matter meets matter does not cut it, they destroy each other generating gamma particles wich will make you bald.

Have you not seen yoda?

And how is the anti-matter kept? The body of the light saber is made of matter...

You don't have to keep antimatter... as I said bombard antimatter with high amounts of engery and you get antimatter as a byproduct of the collision.
But you can contain antimatter. TRAP (previously ATRAP) and ATHENA at CERN both do it... although they can't store more than a few million antimatter atoms, and the longest TRAP has only stored that for was about 2 months.

I see, So the light sabers are really, linear particle acelerators. Bad design.

Absolutely!

You can use the energy generator to directly blast your enemies.

Yeah but that wouldn't make for a very good movie about "knights" would it. I mean what would you call them? The Jedi Bombardiers? Doesn't have the same ring to it.

[kirants]

I finally watched Episode III yesterday
I was able to sit thru it.. In fact, it was kinda interesting..
I think the movie was well done.

Watch the previous episodes , I will

May the force be with ya'all