Engineers Build Retractable Lightsaber That Cuts Through Steel Like Butter
By Jack Dunhill
19 Oct 2020, 21:43
Being stuck at home during the pandemic has led to people finding some pretty crazy ways to pass the time, like this 12-year-old kid who built his own nuclear fusor. But the winners might have to be the engineers from the Hacksmith on Youtube, who have created a fully retractable, color-changing lightsaber that cuts through metal like it’s butter.
The Hacksmith demonstrate their latest technology. Credit: The Hacksmith
The plasma-powered saber burns at a toasty 2,200°C (4,000°F). Owing to a special nozzle, the plasma shoots out of the handle in an almost-perfect recreation of the Star Wars lightsabers.
Whilst technically a ‘protosaber’ instead of a lightsaber due to it relying on an external power pack and not some tiny infinite energy source within the handle, this feat was the product of four years’ work by the engineers. Earlier attempts heated long tungsten rods to extreme temperatures. However, “the internet is never pleased,†according to the Hacksmith and so they set out to create a version that retracts and extends like the sci-fi originals.
https://www.iflscience.com/technology/engineers-build-retractable-lightsaber-that-cuts-through-steel-like-butter/
