What would happen if you used the Star Wars sword to transform?

Have you seen the lightsaber transformation video recently?

Why is lightsaber transformation so popular? Isn’t its prototype the lightsaber in Star Wars?

The lightsabers we played with:

Star Wars Lightsaber:

In comparison, the "light tube" transformation seems too low-level! If conditions permit, can we play with real lightsabers?

What's the difference between a regular lightsaber and a Star Wars sword?

In the lightsaber transformation videos, most of the lightsabers we see are video special effects, and some are glow sticks or fluorescent lights.

Although the fluorescent sword can be considered a "light sword" (its internal oxidation reaction releases heat, and then the fluorescent material on the wall absorbs energy and emits photons), it is not lethal and is much inferior to the sword in "Star Wars". Fluorescent material is a substance that easily ionizes at low temperatures, so we can only see a little light and heat from it.

The sword in "Star Wars" is not a laser sword. The official explanation is that it is a ball of plasma, which is bound into the shape of a sword due to a strong magnetic field, so it is a "plasma sword."

In fact, it can be seen from the settings in the movie that if the sword in "Star Wars" is an ordinary laser sword, it should be a straight line in the distance, and the length of the sword cannot be adjusted at will.

If the laser power is not strong, it will take a continuous period of time to burn something, which can be as short as a few seconds or as long as a few minutes. This is obviously not in line with the setting that the Star Wars sword can cause damage as soon as it touches the target. Plasma transfers energy directly to the object being touched, which can cause instant damage.

How mysterious is the plasma sword?

The word plasma sounds mysterious, but it is just a form of matter in nature, just like solid, liquid and gas. It is not rare and not necessarily destructive.

For example, there are the hazy auroras at the North and South Poles of the Earth, the fleeting lightning in a storm, and the most common type of plasma - the flame produced when matter burns.

Most of the plasmas we can see are colorful like this. In fact, they are a visual effect presented by charged particles in a free state.

It is formed because high temperature, magnetic field or other reasons cause the electrons and atomic nuclei in the substance to be ionized, thus forming a group of positively charged ions and negatively charged electrons. However, it is difficult for free ions and electrons to exist stably under such circumstances, so they cannot always be in this mixed state, but are constantly ionized and recombined. These processes are accompanied by transitions in electron energy levels, and corresponding photons of various energies are released, which is why they appear colorful.

Most substances are difficult to ionize, and usually atoms emit photons when they are ionized. So as long as it is plasma, it will always emit light (but not necessarily plasma). The Star Wars sword is a ball of self-luminous plasma.

Plasma is also called super gas, so the Star Wars sword looks dazzling, but if its power is not high enough to burn objects, it cannot directly split things at all. Solid matter may easily pass through it.

How powerful is the plasma sword?

The lethality of plasma should be classified as a "magic" attack. The output energy will be transferred to the object it touches in the form of heat, so the damage caused by plasma should be similar to the effect of burning.

The lethality of plasma to external objects depends on the amount of energy it contains or absorbs while maintaining its own state. Plasma such as lightning can instantly burn the objects it hits.

If the plasma has only the energy of a fluorescent stick, the energy it can release is very limited, and its power is of course very small. Plasma will be more unstable at low temperatures, so in order to maintain its state, it needs to continue to obtain energy from the outside world.

So if we want to get a powerful lightsaber that can ionize the air, we need a hilt or sword core that can continuously output energy, such as the Kyber crystal in Star Wars.

In the story setting, Kyber crystal is the ideal material for creating lightsabers, which can concentrate the energy of lightsaber batteries and release it into a narrow beam like a blade.

Can the Star Wars plasma sword be built?

To sum up, the formation of plasma requires a certain amount of external energy, and the conditions for its formation are not harsh. It is not difficult to make a lightsaber in principle, but it is not so easy to use a lightsaber as a weapon to attack.

Plasma can emit light, but its stability is questionable. If you want to maintain a certain shape, you need very strong magnetic and electric fields to restrain it, which makes it impossible to hold it in your hand like a sword handle and dance it around.

Over the years, many Star Wars fans have been trying to make Star Wars swords, but all of them failed, either because of insufficient "performance" or poor appearance.

However, recently, the Smith team in the United States took five years to create a lightsaber that is almost identical to the lightsaber in "Star Wars".

They mixed propane with oxygen, sprayed it out through a laminar flow nozzle and ignited it, forming a plasma rocket column of more than 2,000 degrees. They used the high temperature to cut steel plates, and their function was very similar to the lightsaber in "Star Wars".

But this plasma beam lightsaber has a fatal weakness, that is, the lightsaber needs to be connected to a fuel backpack, which makes it extremely inconvenient to wield.

There is no practical significance in making the lightsaber of "Star Wars". It is more of a love-generating activity for Star Wars fans. If plasma can be applied to weapons, it would be better to convert swords into guns, which would be more practical.

In fact, plasma is not that difficult to use. People have actually invented many machines that use the properties of plasma. For example, using plasma to process the surface of materials, using lasers to induce plasma to generate electricity, using plasma guns to smelt metals, etc.

In recent years, scientists have discovered that the new coronavirus will be quickly inactivated under the action of low-temperature plasma. This effect may be used in the treatment of COVID-19 and the development of inactivated vaccines in the future.

END

Review expert: Luo Huiqian, Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences

Tadpole Musical Notation original article/reprint please indicate the source

Editor/Heart and Paper