Star Wars Weaponry Morphism to Our Galaxy
In the Star Wars galaxy far far away, light (or laser) blaster pistols or rifles are the common weaponry used by stormtroopers, Mandalorians, among others. Once fired, its “bullet” trajectory is illuminated by a burst of light beam, thus called light bullet. Along with lightsabers, they are often thought of as some kind of laser or plasma technology equivalent to our galaxy. There have been no lack of efforts to build a real-world lightsaber, for example to mimic its appearance or effect in our world.
In this article, I’d like to argue that their “light or laser” is not equivalent to ours, especially due to the ether (or force) its light energy is traveling through. By morphism, light blasters in Star Wars galaxy are more like bows and arrows in our world.
1. Speed of a light bullet
Adam Savage measured the speed of “light bullet” i.e. laser beam, coming out of a stormtrooper’s blaster from the Star Wars movie. (https://www.popularmechanics.com/culture/movies/a17230/adam-savage-star-wars-lasers/)
Here is a list of approximate speeds (miles per hour) in comparison
It is obvious that the closest projectile speed in our world to match that of a light blaster is an arrow out of a recurve bow. It’s definitely not our laser (at the speed of light), which should be many orders of magnitude faster.
BTW, not all our weapons are superior in “bullet” speed, for example a high-end NERF gun bullet travels at 68 mph, half of that of the light blaster pistol.
2. Stormtroopers’ poor aim
Since we can draw equivalence between a stormtrooper’s light blaster pistol and our bows and arrows, it becomes easy to explain why stormtroopers’ poor marksmanship. (https://www.republicworld.com/world-news/rest-of-the-world-news/the-mandalorian-clip-proves-stormtroopers-cant-aim.html)
If you’ve watched Olympic archery competitions, you know it’s hard to hit a bullseye at 70-meter distance away. Both gravity and the surrounding air determines the trajectory of our arrow. It takes years of training to gain the skills to be accurate and consistent.
Similarly the “light bullet”, going through its medium (call it ether or air) at a comparable speed, and due to its low mass, can be greatly affected by its surroundings as well.
One hypothesis is that, to make matters worse, once a “light bullet” travels through the air/ether, it splits or disturbs the air, thus causing subsequent “bullets” to further deviate from their straight line trajectory. This could explain why a bunch of stormtroopers shooting together, in the same direction, in closed space (like corridors of a spaceship), would achieve the worst accuracy.
3. Blocking blaster with lightsaber
In that galaxy far far away, Jedi Knights are seen blocking or deflecting “light bullets” from blasters with their lightsabers. How is that possible?
Even at the “relative slow” speed an arrow travels through the air in our world, it’s almost impossible for a human to block it by wielding a sword. (Don’t believe movies and never try this at home)
Unless we extend the earlier hypothesis, light bullets not only interact extensively with the surrounding air, it also “attracts or repels” to similar light energy that’s surrounding a lightsaber.
In our world, it is analogous to someone wielding a strong magnet in the air, and ferromagnetic nails in the close proximity gets attracted to it easily.
Summary
At this point, hopefully you can see the morphisms between the two galaxies:
force field <==> air + magnetic field
light pistol + bullet <==> bow + arrow
lightsaber <==> sword with magnetsSo next time, you won’t feel bad when your kids ask you to build them a lightsaber, and you come up with a pool noodle with a bunch of LEDs inside.
May the force be with you! Now, get out of my workshop.
