So I finally gave in...

[Sturn]

Lots of replies saying a lightsaber is too small to have the power to make a plasma beam. Of course not. Not yet:

A fusion/fission plant can't be made small enough to carry on your back to power your battledress. Not yet.

A power source isn't small enough and the technology hasn't been discovered to create a personal grav belt. Not yet.

NASA or the UNSCA can't make a starcraft that can travel a parsec in a couple weeks involving a strange mechanic of displacing liquid hydrogen in the process. Not yet.

 

[Sturn]

Guess again, both ways, guys. Star Wars is the distant past and physics is still physics; it's [lightsabre] definitively too small to supply the magnitude of energy required even if you can somehow solve the containment, etc, with 'future tech'. It was a nice try, though ;¬)

Someone said the world was flat. Someone else said man would never fly. Einstein said we can't go faster then the speed of light.....

Jump 1 travels how fast?

 

[Gaidheal]

Welcome to hard realities of physics, specifically 'thermodynamics'. I.E. Not Ever.

 

[Jame Rowe]

Someone said the world was flat. Someone else said man would never fly. Einstein said we can't go faster then the speed of light.....

Apparently most educated people believed the world was round since the Greeks proved it 2300 years ago (or so). The current flat-earth belief originated during the 19th century.

Einstein hasn't been disproved so far.

 

[Rikki Tikki Traveller]

Doesn't some of the power for the Lightsabre come from the Force of the user? Once you move into metaphysics, all bets are off.

 

[Gaidheal]

RTT - not in any ruleset or even fiction that I've read, nope. Indeed, there are direct contra-indications - a 'droid' using them, for example.

P.S. Quite correct about 'flat earth' it was not that widely believed and certainly not for the entirety of human history; anyone who can see the horizon and bothers to think for a bit realizes that the earth cannot be flat, climb a tall feature and observe the horizon receding and you become pretty sure it's spherical or close to.

P.P.S. Man doesn't fly, either, if I want to be pedantic - humanity has managed to create machines capable of flight and there were no more naysayers for that than there were for achieving speeds greater than those you can run at (people suggested you would suffocate on trains, for example).

 

[Sturn]

I think the point I was trying to make was missed. I wasn't defending the idea that the Earth is flat or that Man could fly without external means. I was just using examples of how past scientists and intelligent men have gotten things wrong.

Throughout world history, scientists have gotten most things right, but many things wrong. That was one of my points. Be careful saying something is impossible. Even now some are contemplating that Einstein might have gotten some things wrong.

You said that laws of physics forbid a Star Wars lightsaber aka plasma sword due to the small handle not being large enough to contain the power source. I was pointing out that Traveller breaks the laws of physics also by allowing the light speed limit to be broken.

So let's get into speculation, which is what most of this is. A proponent of Traveller being hard science could state that a jump drive is not breaking the speed of light, but warping time/space. So, the laws of physics are bypassed.

I could imagine solutions to the lightsaber power source problem also. Perhaps the power source isn't in the handle at all, the handle is just a receptor for the vast power that is generated elsewhere. Futuristic solar panels if you will. Power is generated somewhere else, perhaps even naturally, such as a nearby star or planet's core. The lightsaber doesn't contain the power source, just a receptor which collects the energy. So, likewise another law of physics is bypassed.

I'm not saying at all this is what Star Wars intended with the light saber, (George Lucas didn't seem to care much about science) just that certain things that seem impossible by the laws of science at first can find a way to come to reality. Future scientists have invented many things that past scientists claimed were impossible. Let's don't get over-elitist and claim we 'modern' men know all the answers. A few of our modern scientific laws that we somehow got wrong might be laughed at by future scientists who consider us barbarians. We laugh at the learned scientists of the past who claimed the Sun rotated around the Earth.

[Edited to add some information and lighten the original post]

 

[Gaidheal]

Your point about being too cocky, overall, is well made and for the record, I can pick holes in any SF (can't we all? It's by necessity not real otherwise we'd be living it not writing it), however, there is absolutely no way in universe or out of universe that they could work, really and the explanations given in-universe don't hold up. In the OTU, most things do hold up (internal consistency) and many are extensions of actual science which are conceivably possible but not yet implementable as stated, a lightsabre is not.

 

[GypsyComet]

RTT - not in any ruleset or even fiction that I've read, nope. Indeed, there are direct contra-indications - a 'droid' using them, for example.

Never read the d6 Star Wars then. Lightsaber damage was directly modified by the user's "Force Control" skill.

 

[lastbesthope]

Doesn't some of the power for the Lightsabre come from the Force of the user? Once you move into metaphysics, all bets are off.

RTT - not in any ruleset or even fiction that I've read, nope. Indeed, there are direct contra-indications - a 'droid' using them, for example.

Never read the d6 Star Wars then. Lightsaber damage was directly modified by the user's "Force Control" skill.

But the damage caused could equallycome from the skill used in weilding the blade, which could be Force derived without the Force being used to power the weapon.

LBH

 

[Gaidheal]

As LBH said, that reflects better ability to use what is supposedly an awkward weapon (the blade has no weight to give feedback on position, for example, according to several sources) requiring a lot of skill. However, nope, I never read those rules at all, I only played West End's system for one (long running) game and there were no lightsabres and no overt Force users.... I was Jessa Dajus, though :¬)

 

[Rikki Tikki Traveller]

Didn't the Droid General use two lightsabres in one of the movies?

 

[AndrewW]

Didn't the Droid General use two lightsabres in one of the movies?

Four, but isn't actually a droid.

 

[GypsyComet]

Droids don't wheeze. General Grievous is an extreme cyborg. Brain, eyes, and some organs including at least one lung and his heart were about it.

Unfortunately, he was turned into "just some droid" by Ep III. You had to have seen the Clone Wars serial to know anything about him.

 

[Gaidheal]

Grievous was a cyborg, aye, but not whom I meant when talking of Droids using them, actually. Grievous supposedly has no Force powers, whatsoever (as I recall), though, so it's relevant and according to the rulesets I know well, with so little organic material left, for a sentient, would have a small Force presence, as well.

 

[GypsyComet]

Meh. Were I inclined to continue arguing Star Wars lore (which is always subject to the whims of the Lucas), I'd take it to another board.

We're here for Traveller.

 

[Gaidheal]

Heh, true enough, incidentally Lucas said "make me a Droid general" when looking for a 'bad guy' for "Episode 3", which is where Grievous actually started and the coughing was from Lucas' own chest infection.

 

[The Chef]

Welcome to hard realities of physics, specifically 'thermodynamics'. I.E. Not Ever.

is there an option to ignore as comments like this kinda spoil the more "fictional" side of science fiction!

 

[lastbesthope]

Welcome to hard realities of physics, specifically 'thermodynamics'. I.E. Not Ever.

Lest we forget, Crusade had an episode which mentioned a substance which broke the laws of Thermodynamics, and even a Technomage wasn't sure which ones :lol:

LBH

 

[captainjack23]

Welcome to hard realities of physics, specifically 'thermodynamics'. I.E. Not Ever.

is there an option to ignore as comments like this kinda spoil the more "fictional" side of science fiction!

Nope . Not this version. Traditionally, one has to wait for the discussion to escalate until the thread is deleted and bans happen...

Do Not Try This At Home.