Science Says Lightsabers Wouldn’t Work In Real Life (But Everything Else From “Star Wars” Checks Out?)

English egghead Martin Archer is here to ruin your childhood dreams of one day wielding a real-life lightsaber.

The physicist, radio presenter and fun-ruiner has created a new entry for his Martin on Movies webseries entitled “The Fundamental Flaw with Lightsabers”. (And no, he’s not just referring to Kylo Ren’s guaranteed own-hand slicer – he means all lightsabers.)

Turns out, it comes down to the plasma of the weapon’s blade. That plasma is so hot – about 14,700 degrees Celsius – you probably wouldn’t feel very comfortable handling it. And if two lightsabers were to ever meet, it would create an explosion of hot plasma that would “vaporise your hands, legs and face off”.

There’s a lot of math required to reach that conclusion, but we’ll leave the explaining to Archer. (Courtesy of The A.V. Club.)

Just, please don’t tell us BB-8’s not possible, sir.

Photo: Disney.