Engineer Creates Real-Life 'Star Wars' Lightsaber that Can Slice Through Metal
An Anonymous Coward writes:
Engineer Creates Real-Life 'Star Wars' Lightsaber That Can Slice Through Metal:
Engineer and YouTube personality James Hobson has finally done what so many movie nerds before him have dreamed about: He created a functional - and potentially deadly - lightsaber fit for a real Jedi.
[...] "Well, theories say that plasma is best held in a beam by a magnetic field, which, scientifically, checks out," he continues. "The issue is producing a strong enough electromagnetic field to contain a blade, well the lightsaber would have to be quite literally built inside a box coated in electromagnets, which turns it into a kind of useless science project."
In order to capture a beam of plasma, Hobson and his teammates, Dave Bonhoff, Ian Hillier and Darryl Sherk, employed the principle of "laminar flow" - combining liquified petroleum gas, or propane, with oxygen and sending them through "laminar nozzles," a specialized tool for engineers, which generates a highly concentrated flow of gas to create a plasma beam, according to Hobson.
[...] The result is a near-replica of a lightsaber that projects and retracts on command, and burns at 4,000 degrees Fahrenheit, which is hot enough to slice through steel.
[...] And it's got a price tag to match its heat level: Just one of those laminar nozzles can cost some $4,000.
Just wait until Elon Not-A-Flamethrower Musk tries to out-do this!
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