Sixth Timeline Technology

[Saul Perth]

Has there been an official consensus yet on the weight of lightsaber beams?

 

[Kenico]

Normal Lightsabery weight i guess :D

 

[Aluminum Falcon]

Has there been an official consensus yet on the weight of lightsaber beams?

I would assume they weigh nothing, considering they are made of energy.

 

[Brandon Rhea]

Has there been an official consensus yet on the weight of lightsaber beams?

I don't know if there is or will be an official stance, but the staff (from my reading of comments that have been made) seems to be inclined towards the original trilogy idea that lightsabers do have weight.

 

[Kenico]

What exactly does that mean perse? Cause I can understand that the hilts would be heavy (they are the heaviest component of the lightsaber seeing they have the most mass) but by these comments and notions its coming to the impression that the weapons are ungainly.

 

[Aluminum Falcon]

the original trilogy idea that lightsabers do have weight.

Is this in regards to the blade or the hilt? If it's the blade when does the OT reference this?

 

[Kenico]

I think it has something to do with GL's original concept when commenting on ANH...however im not too sure.

 

[Saul Perth]

I was referring to the blade specifically.

The core of the blade is said to be plasma, not energy. Plasma has mass, which implies weight when effected by gravity.

If it was weightless, then lightsaber beams would tend to float in the air, similar to a piece of foam underwater.

Also, yes, the weight thing was from Lucas in the OT.

 

[Jake]

words

Your assertion (lightsaber blade is plasma) is correct, but your conclusion is not. If you want to get technical about E=mc^2 then you could say it has infinitesimal mass, but all of the weight would be in the hilt. If we assume that the blade's fixed length is because of some kind of electromagnetic field, then it would also be frictionless. This is a pretty simple logical progression to make, but I also remember reading it discussed more in depth on a site somewhere specifically in regards to the question of lightsaber weight...

Also, the people talking about how they appeared to have weight in the OT are misunderstanding the simple truth that special effects were limited back then. The actors used actual wooden props that were rotoscoped afterwards to get the quintessential lightsaber effect.

Truthfully, there is no reason for the site to suddenly go with lightsabers being weighted swords imo. If they're "just swords made of energy," then this would still hold true. Rule of cool doesn't need to be applied here, there has never been a problem before with this.

 

[Jake]

here we go

 

[Saul Perth]

I'm not following you on why are you assuming plasma has no mass. Via the basic laws of conservation the mass of the volume of plasma contained within the field is the same as the mass of the fluid that was excited to plasma state. This could be lighter than air or notably heavier.

Plasma density is usually given in terms of particles per volume, because that's generally more applicable, but that doesn't mean it lacks actual weight.

Also, if m approached zero in e=mc^2, e would also approach zero due to c being a constant value, a large one granted, but not large enough to mathmatically play with 0 and infinity.

 

[Brandon Rhea]

I think it has something to do with GL's original concept when commenting on ANH...however im not too sure.

It wasn't so much the original concept as it was that's what the actors were explicitly told. Mark Hamill has talked about it a lot. He and the stuntmen inside of the Vader costume wielded the props as if they had heft like a real sword.

 

[Kenico]

yeah thats it! I watched a featurette and Hamil talked about it a lot saying that both he Prowse and later Bob Anderson (infamous Swordmaster of hollywood) were told to treat the blades as if they were heavy. As for that article, I'm deeply impressed with its analysis. It does make scary good sense at why only Jedi can properly wield a lightsaber. Though I do have one concern: If that is the case, how is it that the lightsaber combat in both CW and Rebels (which are considered Cannon mind you) feels more prequelly (as in instead of being portrayed as heavy they looked as if they didnt weigh much)...not only that how come Cad Bane (however briefly) could effectively hold his own in a lightsaber fight with Obi Wan? Was he a little savy or did he get lucky?

 

[Miz]

I always thought lightsabers weighing a lot was kind of dumb. It would contradict smaller jedi like Yoda being able to wield a lightsaber (whether you like it or not) so easily and make Ashoka and Assajj insanely strong for their size.

 

[Logan]

I always thought lightsabers weighing a lot was kind of dumb. It would contradict smaller jedi like Yoda being able to wield a lightsaber (whether you like it or not) so easily and make Ashoka and Assajj insanely strong for their size.

Different materials for a lighter heft. Yoda's was significantly smaller as well. A rapier, a sword build for speed and agility, obviously doesn't weight as much as even an equivalent longsword.

A weapon doesn't have to be weightless to be utilized with speed and agility in mind over physical strength. This can even be further compounded by utilizing the force increase their dexterous abilities, as well as their physical strength, as well.

 

[Saul Perth]

I think people are getting the wrong impression when I talk about lightsabers having weight.

I'm not suggesting that lightsabers weigh 20 pounds and have to be swung with full body motion. I think a good weight for lightsabers would probably be about half the weight of an equivalent length steel longsword. Far from unmanageable, even one handed, but that leaves a meaningful amount of mass for momentum to actually give a reason to wind up a good whollup every now and then.

Another thought is to, as Relent said, have the type of plasma come into play, certain types are more dense, both in terms of matter and energy, while others are lighter but lack power.

 

[Miz]

Different materials for a lighter heft. Yoda's was significantly smaller as well. A rapier, a sword build for speed and agility, obviously doesn't weight as much as even an equivalent longsword.

A weapon doesn't have to be weightless to be utilized with speed and agility in mind over physical strength. This can even be further compounded by utilizing the force increase their dexterous abilities, as well as their physical strength, as well.

Good point. I'd imagine a fully realized Jedi would have no problem either way.

 

[Jake]

I'm not following you on why are you assuming plasma has no mass. Via the basic laws of conservation the mass of the volume of plasma contained within the field is the same as the mass of the fluid that was excited to plasma state. This could be lighter than air or notably heavier.

Plasma density is usually given in terms of particles per volume, because that's generally more applicable, but that doesn't mean it lacks actual weight.

Also, if m approached zero in e=mc^2, e would also approach zero due to c being a constant value, a large one granted, but not large enough to mathmatically play with 0 and infinity.

Here you have a real world application of plasma in a manner somewhat similar to what we see with a lightsaber. Its mass would be negligible. If there weren't some kind of magnetic field holding the plasma in place it would diffuse and be equivalent to blasting someone with really hot air. The article I linked to also explains pretty elegantly why it would make more sense for Jedi to use this type of weapon as opposed to your typical bro.

 

[Korvo]

Personally, I'm for lightsabers being weightless (or about as close as they can get, now that they're plasma instead of energy), but for all practical purposes, it really wouldn't have an impact on the RP. People wouldn't RP their characters getting exhausted from the weight of the blades anymore than people RPing with vibroblades would.

 

[Saul Perth]

Here you have a real world application of plasma in a manner somewhat similar to what we see with a lightsaber. Its mass would be negligible. If there weren't some kind of magnetic field holding the plasma in place it would diffuse and be equivalent to blasting someone with really hot air. The article I linked to also explains pretty elegantly why it would make more sense for Jedi to use this type of weapon as opposed to your typical bro.

I'm familiar with plasma cutting, although note that Argon is on the heavier side of gases. The problem with making a comparison like that is that we have no idea how dense a lightsaber blade actually needs to be. Thus the actual weight of the blade is completely up to the community to decide.

I'll agree with you that the PT and TCW and Rebels make lightsabers look light, but the OT and TFA give the appearance of heavier blades. How that rolls over to us is up to the administration, I was just making a case for blades having some weight at all. Once that is established, it can be determined if that weight is relevant.