What would the power output of Star Wars lightsabers be if they existed?

Luke Wilcox of the University of Leicester has calculated the power output of lightsabers from the Star Wars franchise, if such a weapon really existed.

Wilcox started with the fact that the lightsabers are portrayed as weapons that can effortlessly cut through a metal door based on a scene involving Qui-Gon Jinn in Episode 1 – The Phantom Menace.

He assumed that the material in question is doonium, a metal used in battleship construction in the Star Wars universe.

Luke took into consideration factors such as the melting point, the final temperature and the mass of the melted door and the result is the power of the lightsaber of as much as 6.96 MW.

He was also interested in which color would make the sword most effective, that is, which one would take the least amount of time to cut through the said metal door.

It was immediately clear that shorter wavelengths mean more power. A red lightsaber would take 14 seconds to cut through the door, a yellow one would take 12, a green one 11, a blue one 9.6, whereas the purple one would take only 8.2 seconds.

The papers were published in the Journal of Interdisciplinary Science Topics.

Star Wars

Luke Wilcox

University of Leicester

lightsaber

lightsabers

doonium

Journal of Interdisciplinary Science Topics