The lightsaber–a more elegant weapon for a more civilized age. It handles Sith and blaster bolts just fine, but how would the ancient weapon fare if a Jedi suddenly found herself battling in a not so far, far away galaxy? Pit against our most common weapon, could a lightsaber block bullets?

In my latest Because Science, I’m tackling a question you’ve asked me for years. We start with what a lightsaber is. Combining Star Wars canon and science, our best bet is intensely hot plasma encircled by crazy strong magnetic fields, as in experimental fusion reactors. That gives us two potential bullet-blocking mechanisms: deflection via magnetism, and/or bullet vaporization via plasma.

So, could a lightsaber feasibly produced the magnetic field strength required to change a common bullet’s trajectory or could it put out enough heat energy to turn the bullet into hot metal smoke before it got to our Jedi? You’ll have to watch my latest episode above to find out.

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