What happens to a lightsaber in water?

[spatz]

The subject of my post is a very important question that has been driving me nuts for the last three days, and my trusty Star Wars geek friend doesn't know, so I turn to LiveJournal. I'm scared to try a Google search, but I will if ya'll fail me.

Also, "ya'll" is totally the right way to punctuate it, not this "y'all" BS.

How do you people with, like, 200 people on your flist keep up? Jesus. I have 40 and just caught up last night, excluding the bajillion fics I bookmarked. Of course, all the Yuletide recs/links/enormous fucking archive is boosting the size of that list somewhat, but *still*.

ETA: Wow, L. Frank Baum really sucks at continuity. And this post is made of random.

Comments

[inmyriadbits.livejournal.com]

Hmm. You know, there's really no canon for that, I don't think. It doesn't help that the way a lightsaber interacts with the human body isn't exactly consistent either (cauterizing flesh vs. not; see Luke's hand, The Empire Strikes Back vs. alien's arm, Mos Eisley Cantina, A New Hope). I'm going to make a logical leap and say that they really meant the lightsabers to be hot enough to cauterize flesh, and that the blood & gore was for dramatic effect. That said, I don't know at what minimum temperature flesh cauterizes. If you can find that, you'll know the minimum temperature (or whatever equivalent energy transference as it interacts with a material; not clear on lightsaber physics, here) of a lightsaber, capiche? From there, let's add that the boiling point of water is 100 °C. So, if a lightsaber is hotter than that, the water would be superheated and flash-boil. If it's not, the water might heat up, but I don't think it would boil. Also, I don't think submersion of the handle would affect a lightsaber; if it can withstand a Hoth snowstorm and the mud on Dagobah, I think it's fair to conclude it's waterproof.

Dude, you're WRONG. According to the rules of contractions, the apostrophe takes the place of an omitted letter when two words are combined, such as in "didn't," where "did" and "not" are combined as "didnot" and transformed into "didn't" (observe the apostrophe taking the place of the "o"). Therefore, "you all" sees the "ou" replaced by an apostrophe, leading to "y'all." dictionary.com agrees with me (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/y'all).

ETA: Wow, L. Frank Baum really sucks at continuity.

*clasps hands together fervently* Does this mean you're working on my Ozma fic? *big eyes* :D

[thespatz.livejournal.com]

Yeah, so you'd get steam. But if there's an electrical component to the blade, that might make things weird. It has to have some sort of electromagnetic field to bounce off energy bolts...

You did not just try to reference a DICTIONARY for proper slang usage. Dorkass. Besides, if ya'll is a contraction of "YA-all" and not "YOU-all", which is so much more Texan, then you should drop the second A, like in we'll. Plus, my way has symmetry.

I've been sidling up to the thing, yes. And I found the books on Project Gutenberg, so I have something to reference now. But no sudden movements - you understand ;)

[celli]

You two are better than TV.

okay, not. But almost!

[thespatz.livejournal.com]

Awww, thank you!

[jaydeyn-sitari.livejournal.com]

Man, I wish your posts would start showing up on my flist properly! *pokes LJ hard* And inmyriadbits, I'll add an, "Ooh! Sounds cool!" For it actually does! You should write this thespatz!

:)
Jaydeyn

[thespatz.livejournal.com]

*hides from the fangirls*

[jaydeyn-sitari.livejournal.com]

You cannot hide, for we are legion! *g*

... huh, that actually came out as rather sinister. Woops.

*Jedi mind tricks* This is the story you will write....

:)
Jaydeyn

[inmyriadbits.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the backup! :D

See, Katie? You could have devoted masses, groveling at your feet...

[inmyriadbits.livejournal.com]

Hee, thanks! Just watch as I lay the smackdown on her (http://thespatz.livejournal.com/30303.html?thread=123743#t123743) for her completely wrong ideas about the punctuation of "y'all." *takes a bow*

Hey, you wanna help me bug her about the fic I want her to write? She has this brilliant idea to write a piece about Ozma from L. Frank Baum's Oz series, which will deal with fun stuff like female leadership (she rules Oz, can you imagine that job?) and canonical genderswap issues (spent her formative years as a boy due to a bitchy witch) and friendship (best friends with Dorothy, yo). I've been nudging her since 2005, and I think maybe it would help if someone else throws in an "Ooh! Sounds cool" with me. Maybe I can start recruiting...

[inmyriadbits.livejournal.com]

So you think maybe it would electrify the water? Hmm. Well, if you count
The Wikipedia entry says the following (God know where they pulled this from, though):

When the activator is pushed, internal power cells create photoelectric energy and the blade is focused from the crystal, though a metallic channel that instantly creates a polar arc of proton-saturated ions. A tight beam of anti-protonic ions appears on command, which is focused through one, two, or three multi-faceted crystals and super heats any gas or liquid into recognizable plasma emissions. The activation button energizes the weapon forming a positively charged shaft of coherent packets of anti-proton energy arching back about a meter (3 ft) long. The anti-protonic ions are attracted back to the saber hilt by a negatively charged, high-energy flux aperture.

So it appears that a) it would superheat a liquid and b) is positively charged, but wouldn't conduct its charge in water because of the way the energy is cycled through the blade? And then you'd still get the effect with energy weapons. I think. I can't remember much physics right now.

I totally did use a dictionary. Y'all is becoming a very common word, and Shakespeare should tell you all about the legitimization of slang/made up words. And no, the contraction of "ya" and "all" does not form "y'all"--not according to the dictionary link I already provided, and not according to the basic rules of English. While the phrase "ya all" might be just as valid a slang form of "you all" as "y'all," it is an entirely different branching-off of the original phrase. The As are completely wrong; "ya" has an "a" that's pronounced "uh," like in "about." "All" has "a" pronounced "aw" like in "awl" or "saw." In "y'all," the "a" is pronounced in the latter fashion, as an "aw". Therefore, the "a" in "y'all" derives from the "a" in "all," not the "a" in "ya." So the contraction should be correctly written with the apostrophe after the "y," taking the place of the "ou" in "you all" and not the second "a" in "ya all," since the "a" in "all" is the one that should be kept. *dust off hands, looks smug*

God bless Project Gutenberg. I'm really looking forward to this fic, in case you couldn't tell, since I've been wanting you to write it for years (*eyes email from October 9, 2005*). I think it's a great idea, and I feel very teased by that little bit I was able to read. *pouts*

[inmyriadbits.livejournal.com]

Oh, and that first line should finish: "if you count the books as canon, Mara and Luke would've been fried in Vision of the Future if their lightsabers conducted electricity in water." God only knows how that got cut off.

[thespatz.livejournal.com]

Hmm. So the water might become ionized or polarized or something, but not electrified. Interesting. And the energy bolts must get reversed somehow when they strike the blade.

Ya'll is still more symmetrical, bitch. I'm sticking to my ungrammatically correct slang, and you can suck me.

[inmyriadbits.livejournal.com]

Uh...maybe. I think we're putting far too much thought into this, but of course feel free to go discuss our ideas with Dara (whose fault I'm sure this conversation is).

My grammatically correct slang can kick your symmetrical slang's ass.

[thespatz.livejournal.com]

Dara would be horrified if I tried to talk physics with her. Even for Star Wars.

My slang will send your slang crying back to its dictionary, trying to hold its pronunciation together.

[inmyriadbits.livejournal.com]

Haha, that's hilarious. It can be your secret weapon.

My slang is your slang what Bailey is to Sheppard--all mine has to do is stare yours down until it cracks down its weak little symmetrical backbone.

[thespatz.livejournal.com]

Well, *my* slang is Callie, and she's gonna snap your slang's apostrophe into the symmetrical place and it's gonna stay where she puts it.

[inmyriadbits.livejournal.com]

My slang doesn't need to snap you slang's joints into place. She just has to Stare. Yours. Down.

(dammit! I don't have any GA icons! CURSES)