(11-29-2014, 06:51 PM)Zed26 Wrote: Can't wait for a discussion about the practicality of the lightsaber from the new Star Wars Teaser. Just kidding, I'm not.
Already had that discussion on FB with a guy with whom we both are longsword fencers, where crossbars are way more common than on lightsabers. This lazor crossbar just opens up a new batch of opportunities for your opponent to make your own weapon kill you, while does not protect at all, as lazor is not coming out of the hilt sideways immediately, only after a short protrusion.
Slip up with the hand and there it goes....
bye bye...
I mean waht the hell what is the point of that? If you get that thing near you you are also dead.
Actually, light behaves as a ray, wave and particle, and are separated into three schools of optics: geometrical, diffractive, and quantum optics. One of the cooler new developments in quantum photonics right now is a quantumly divergent (think shroedingers cat) quality of light so that when photons are slowed down substantially they bind to form a crystal, while simultaneously being fluid, as one would expect from their wave properties. It won't help us make light sabers, but it could make room temperature semiconductors possible and open up all sorts of new solid state physics.
Sources: Optical engineering student, also http://www.iflscience.com/physics/crysta...-potential