# Will lightsabers cut glass?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-lightsabers-cut-glass/698073
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [September 10, 2014, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-lightsabers-cut-glass/698073 "2014-09-10T15:18:00Z")
**Posts on this page:** 16
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)
#### Post date: [September 11, 2014, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-lightsabers-cut-glass/698073/21 "2014-09-11T17:20:58Z")
> [@Dale\_Sams](#):
>
> Seriously guys?
>
> Hello? Palpatine V. Windu fight? The glass shattered. Very cool moment.
Well, can I be forgiven for forgetting because it was a prequel? No? 🙂 OK. I only saw it once.
What got me thinking was I was driving to work, and thought how easy tempered car glass shatters. I wondered if the stresses cause by the heat of the LS would be enough to shatter a panel completely. I wasn’t sure if the plasma would melt the glass and relieve the stress, so you could actually get a cut right through the middle of a window.
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### Author:  [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)
#### Post date: [September 11, 2014, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-lightsabers-cut-glass/698073/22 "2014-09-11T18:44:41Z")
I don’t get the plasma/force field thing.
Wouldn’t the force field pretty much do all the real work? Why is the plasma needed if the force field perfectly contains it? So some must “leak out” (e.g., to slice off a hand) but only exactly when and where needed. How is this controlled?
The Force (capital F) must not be necessary to do basic stuff with it since Luke wields it during training against the remote early in Episode IV when his Force skills were almost negligible.
(And if you can build a blasted hand held plasma/force field weapon, why on Tatooine do you make it into a limited range sword?:dubious:)
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### Author:  [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)
#### Post date: [September 11, 2014, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-lightsabers-cut-glass/698073/23 "2014-09-11T18:51:56Z")
Anybody can use a light saber. Han uses Luke’s to carve open the tauntaun, for example. It just takes the Force to use one well, or effectively. It’s an elegant weapon, as opposed to a common blaster.
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### Author:  [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)
#### Post date: [September 11, 2014, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-lightsabers-cut-glass/698073/24 "2014-09-11T18:54:19Z")
What, you want a clumsy random weapon like a blaster? A lightsaber is an elegant weapon for a more civilized age,
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### Author:  [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)
#### Post date: [September 11, 2014, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-lightsabers-cut-glass/698073/25 "2014-09-11T19:00:15Z")
> [@silenus](#):
>
> Anybody can use a light saber. Han uses Luke’s to carve open the tauntaun, for example. It just takes the Force to use one well, or effectively. It’s an elegant weapon, as opposed to a common blaster.
I think the canon is that to use it _as a weapon_ needs Jedi prescience. Ever hit yourself with your own sword, or nun chucks, in either training or actual combat? It probably hurt. Make the same mistake with a lightsaber and you’ll lose a limb (or a head). No such thing as a glancing blow with a lightsaber. You need the Jedi skill not only to deflect blaster bolts (for example), but to NOT slice yourself up in the process.
Despite that, I still vote it as the coolest sci-fi weapon ever.
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### Author:  [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)
#### Post date: [September 11, 2014, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-lightsabers-cut-glass/698073/26 "2014-09-11T19:19:20Z")
That’s why I said “effectively.” A non-Force user would miss the blaster bolt entirely, or if the did intercept it by chance, deflect it down into their foot.
I don’t want to think what would happen if you triggered the saber while it was dangling from your belt. :eek:
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### Author:  [@TheChileanBlob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheChileanBlob)
#### Post date: [September 11, 2014, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-lightsabers-cut-glass/698073/27 "2014-09-11T20:19:59Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#):
>
> Not according to the novel _Splinter of the Mind’s Eye_.
Oh, I so loved that book! I don’t care how non-canon it is, it was all I had in 1978 when I _needed_ more Star Wars.
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### Author:  [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)
#### Post date: [September 11, 2014, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-lightsabers-cut-glass/698073/28 "2014-09-11T20:24:32Z")
Yeah, but whatever the “containment field” is, it’s not frictionless. Otherwise they would just slip off each other (or attract to opposite poles if magnetic) when Luke and Vader lock sabers!
Basically, light sabers behave as if they are glowing, solid, super-hot blades when “on” and like nothing when “off”.
And I still don’t see what’s the point of having one, other than not being as clumsy or random as a blaster. Glowing or not, it still just has the range of a sword.
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### Author:  [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)
#### Post date: [September 11, 2014, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-lightsabers-cut-glass/698073/29 "2014-09-11T20:43:04Z")
Well, they **do** cut down on the “11 innocent bystanders wounded in crossfire” type incidents.
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### Author:  [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)
#### Post date: [September 11, 2014, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-lightsabers-cut-glass/698073/30 "2014-09-11T21:24:16Z")
> [@silenus](#):
>
> I don’t want to think what would happen if you triggered the saber while it was dangling from your belt. :eek:
Make sure the safety is on. You don’t want to go off half-cocked!
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### Author:  [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)
#### Post date: [September 11, 2014, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-lightsabers-cut-glass/698073/31 "2014-09-11T21:43:41Z")
> [@TheChileanBlob](#):
>
> Oh, I so loved that book! I don’t care how non-canon it is, it was all I had in 1978 when I _needed_ more Star Wars.
It was back in the golden days when cutting off somebody’s arm was still considered mildly shocking. .
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### Author:  [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)
#### Post date: [September 11, 2014, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-lightsabers-cut-glass/698073/32 "2014-09-11T22:00:49Z")
“Leave the boy alone,” said Obi-Wan, with a disarming grin.
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### Author:  [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)
#### Post date: [September 11, 2014, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-lightsabers-cut-glass/698073/33 "2014-09-11T22:05:55Z")
Speak softly, and carry a light saber.
–Teddy Roosevelt
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### Author:  [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)
#### Post date: [September 11, 2014, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-lightsabers-cut-glass/698073/34 "2014-09-11T22:09:54Z")
> [@silenus](#):
>
> “Leave the boy alone,” said Obi-Wan, with a disarming grin.
I applaud you, only it won’t be so loud.
-Mad Magazine
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### Author:  [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)
#### Post date: [September 12, 2014, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-lightsabers-cut-glass/698073/35 "2014-09-12T02:27:18Z")
A blaster is, basically, the same technology as a lightsabre except ranged. But every single time we see someone wielding a blaster up against a Jedi wielding a lightsabre, the result is the same: The Jedi uses the lightsabre to deflect all of the blaster bolts, and wins. The value of a lightsabre is in its ability to deflect blaster bolts. And in looking cool, of course, which is not to be taken lightly for a peacekeeping force that needs to win hearts and minds.
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### Author:  [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)
#### Post date: [September 12, 2014, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-lightsabers-cut-glass/698073/36 "2014-09-12T03:22:06Z")
> [@TheChileanBlob](#):
>
> Oh, I so loved that book! I don’t care how non-canon it is, it was all I had in 1978 when I _needed_ more Star Wars.
Hell, some of the books are as good as (or dare I say, even better) than the movies. Well, the prequels. And I liked the prequels.
Canon or not, they’re still good reads.
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