What Kind of Battery Would You Need to Power a Lightsaber?

Melting an crystal cube takes 3.34 x 10⁵ joules per kilogram. So a azygous crystal cube with a wide of 50 grams would instrumentality 16,700 joules. You tin already spot that melting worldly takes a clump of energy. If you privation to melt a metallic door, you person to bash 2 things—increase the somesthesia to the melting constituent and past really liquefy it. The full magnitude of vigor depends connected the wide and benignant of the metal.

Estimating the Power

Now we person to marque immoderate guesses. The large question is what starship doors are made of. I mean, if I was making a elephantine spaceship to transportation conflict droids around, I deliberation my metallic of prime would beryllium aluminum, which has a bully equilibrium betwixt value and strength.

Luckily, we cognize each astir aluminum. It has a density of 2,700 kilograms per cubic metre and a melting somesthesia of 660 degrees Celsius. The circumstantial vigor capableness is 900 joules per kilogram per grade Celsius, and it has a latent vigor of fusion astatine 3.96 x 10⁵ joules per kilogram. (I cognize that's a batch of numbers, but don't worry, we're conscionable going to driblet them into a computer.)

What is the wide of the metallic that's melted? That's a pugnacious one. On Qui-Gon's archetypal cut, it looks similar helium cuts a way astir 2 meters long. I'm not definite astir the width of this path, but I'll spell with 1 centimeter. Finally, the doorway is possibly 5 centimeters thick, and he's cutting each the mode done successful 1 pass. With those estimations, I get a full wide of 2.7 kilograms of melted metal.

Now I tin cipher the vigor required to melt this magnitude of aluminum. It's conscionable the vigor needed to summation the somesthesia of the metallic to the melting constituent and past melt it. (Want to effort the calculation with a antithetic metal? Just plug your numbers into my Python code.) With my numbers, I get a required vigor of 2.6 cardinal joules. Melting metallic isn't trivial.

Now, for the power, I conscionable request to find however agelong it takes to melt this metal. Using Tracker Video Analysis, I get a chopped clip of 11.5 seconds. This gives a powerfulness output of 2.28 x 10⁵ watts. Yes, that's the actual, carnal powerfulness of the Force. It's equivalent to 305 horsepower, truthful it's similar a high-powered car close determination successful your hand.

A Lightsaber Battery

Maybe lightsabers don't person batteries. Maybe they conscionable gully vigor from an other magnitude oregon something. No 1 knows due to the fact that lightsabers aren't existent (and that's fine). But if they did person a battery, what would it look like? What benignant of artillery would work?

We already estimated the powerfulness output of the lightsaber. With this, we tin cipher the full vigor stored successful the device. We conscionable request to cognize however agelong it volition tally connected a azygous charge. I've ne'er seen a lightsaber fizzle retired successful Star Wars, and I've ne'er seen them plugged successful to the wall, truthful I presume they past a agelong time.