Everyone knows the iconic blade from the Star Wars trilogy. They have the ability to cut through most materials, deflect incoming projectiles, and most of all, they look really cool. What I want to ask is could mankind ever be the wielder of one of these luminous swords?
In a word, no, but stay with me. The only material that we know at this time that the blade could be made of is plasma. Plasma is the 4th state of matter and can be solid, liquid, whatever. But plasma isn’t going to slice through metal as if it were paper like in the movies, so we would need to heat it, which is possible. If we could fit a device into the handle that heats up the plasma then it should work yes? Not quite because this is where another improbable part comes in. Say that there was a machine that could heat up a lightsaber hot enough for it to cut through metal, the heat emitting from the plasma would likely melt your hands off in the process, sorry, but what a sweet 3 seconds!
Sadly that isn’t the only flaw in the lightsaber. Let’s pretend here, (as if we weren't already), that you had gloves of some sort that would let you hold the handle without being in excruciating pain the entire time because your hands were melting off. Well you wouldn’t be able to grab the lightsaber in the first place because in order to heat the plasma to the temperature desired, the plasma would need to be connected to a machine the size of a bathroom. So instead of it being a lightsaber its more of a giant machine with a really hot rod sticking out of it.
Finally, if the previous two flaws were somehow worked around, the “light” part of the saber wouldn’t end abruptly like in the movies. The plasma would just trail off into the distance. There is nothing to stop the plasma once it gets out to the length you would want it to end. Instead of a lightsaber think of a really hot flashlight.
So probably no lightsabers in our lifetime, sorry. But nobody watches Star Wars because of its realistic interpretations of the future. At the same time it still is cool to think about and theorize the possibility of one in a galaxy far far away.
