Anti-Matter Lightsabers are a Bad Idea | Because Science Footnotes 

Thanks for watching, Super Nerds! *Here's a link to last week's video* if you haven't peeped it yet: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-gx3I52NiAmY.html -- kH

Thor: “A rock that isn’t a rock” Literally everyone: “Dwayne Johnson”

"i don't know who out there needs to hear this, so I'm not gonna say it." *power move*

"Unless your whole planet is a city.." also plays as a Ravnica joke

"A sword made of antimatter would annihilate whatever city you were in if you tried to use it" . . . That sounds like a great idea!

Kyle: The Neutron Star Slingshot!! Me: Oh boy, I can't wait for Joergsprave to show me its features

This outro and the "There aint no party like a Kyle Hill party cause a Kyle Hill party dont exist. Leave me alone." outro have gotta be my faves lol

rock that isn't a rock. yeah his name is Dwayne Johnson

"Have you ever seen a rock that isn't a rock?" Yes. His name is Dwayne Johnson.

"Yeah, that's right. Baseball sucks." I give it three years before some random team of scientists find out it's turing complete and you eat those words

"Baseball sucks " 😂😂 couldn't agree more ... You're going to get some flak for this 1 😂😂

When you mentioned a rock that doesn't look like a rock, all I could think of is that horrible sea-creature that looks like a rock and people keep cutting it open to show you

The idea of a crowd of faceless/unknowable creatures offscreen that Kyle just casually speaks too lowkey terrifies me

Ok I wasn’t noticed first time, I’ll try reposting: Anything with temperature above 0 Kelvin emits radiation, but what if it’s 0K? Yeah in our universe it’s not possible (as far as we know) but maybe in Star wars universe it could? Complete stop of particle movement could have some whacky implications, it would attract the lightsabers thanks to the temperature and thus air pressure difference. The glow on the edge could come from the air molecules solidifying super fast after touching it and reflecting light. And the super coldness wouldn’t be much of a problem, if they can survive star-hot blades something below -200C shouldn’t be an issue 😂😂 BTW love the show pls notice and correct me senpai

*Kyle talking about inefficiency * *Takes swig of coffee from his mug without using the handle* Me: Hmmmmmmm

Correction for Kyle: There's nobody off camera #foreveralone

These footnotes are just as entertaining, if not more than the actual show. I love these. Keep up the great work.

That first Mcconaughey impression had me dying Kyle. Well done sir. XD

"Kyle who do you look at the end of your videos?" Kyle* "dont you dare get on camera" Theory- its voice of the void nate Conspiracy-kyle actually knows where nate is in the void

Thanks Kyle, I really needed to hear that at the end

The last punchline got me rolling on the floor that sir : was a hilarious wtf moment xD

Omg, I almost fell out laughing at the Dazed & Confused/Mathew McConnahie reference joke! Classic.

Kyle- baseball sucks 32k people- 👍sounds about right... 30 people- 👎 but we like baseball!

That helium thing you guys did there was fantastic and an excellent answer to the question posed.

I love your channel. I’m sorry I don’t have as much time to watch ever since I got this new job

Such a heartfelt outro! We need more like them!

DAMN KYLE TEASING US RIGHT AT THE END. I LOVE IT

You're always pretty amusing but this was one of your funnier episodes Kyle. Loved it, thanks for being you!

Ah, Kyle, that was a brutal ending. I had my heart set up to hear some inspirational wordy words and you just drop me like that? True villainy, I tell ya

I'd like first to state that I absolutely adore your shows. I'm fascinated not only with your mathematics and scientific reasoning but also with the fact you are able to publicly acknowledge your mistakes in such a way that those looking for it are easily able to see you're more of a scientist than most scientists out there today. With that being said, I would like to disagree with one statement you made. I would fear the red lightsaber more than the blue lightsaber as the higher temperature of a blue lightsaber would mean a quicker cauterisation of the wound making the wound potentially more survivable. I also believe it would cut through quicker and cleaner meaning less time in contact with the flesh or Surface of your skin or tissues. Your "you" if I may. I believe a red lightsaber would probably take a few milliseconds longer and would require more force behind it to cut through the same amount of "you". I understand that a red "Plasma sword" would potentially cauterize a wound as well but I don't believe it would be as efficient as there could potentially be places or spots in your tissues, muscles, or bones that would allow for tearing or ripping when you inevitably moved. You know, because if you don't you die by the Jedi or Sith who originally placed such a grievous wound on your "you" to begin with. Keep On Keepin On! Congratulations on your success by the way. You earned it!

As a jewelry hobbyist, I'd like to share that Fordite is often referred to as "Detroit Agate" or "Motor City Agate." Another manmade jem is Bowlerite made from pieces of old bowling balls.

I bet it is a mirror just off-screen. That is how he keeps his hair on point. Love the show.

Hey kyle, love the show. I have a couple of question from a "friend" Say a theoric supervillain managed to control gravity on local points and decided that the best way to show off is creating a black saber, following your idea of a black hole blade. Assuming their own gravity manipulation allows keeping the magnetic field localized to the blade and not destroying everything around. *Wouldn't a horizon event of the size of a lightsaber create a gravity field similar or even stronger than the planet our theoretical super villain is trying to conquer? *Would they need to generate an equal gravity field to contain/counteract the former? (side note, by that point, better use the fields to crush the foe, right? that's two planets worth of gravity) *Is there a way to stretch a significantly less massive horizon so circumvent the problem? (is the gravity needed to "stretch" a saber sized volume of the universe less than the one needed for a saber sized black hole?) I know that this probably falls in the don't ask too much about this, but this friend of mine is really curious if there is a way of making a practical black hole blade that doesn't just destroys everything the moment it turned on, and actually lets him cut stuff. You know, for academic reasons.

Awe I missed it.😣😣 I was so excited. I've been watching all the reruns I've missed to catch up. I hate I missed the first live one I've would have seen in a while

I've seen a rock that isn't actually a rock. Dwayne Johnson!

Even nerdier correction: In both Legends and Canon there are other lightsabers that resist lightsabers. In Canon the Praetorian’s armor resists lightsabers. In Legends the Vong, Darth Bane, some Royal Guards, some Shadow/Dark Troopers, etc... have lightsaber proof armor. Phrik, Beskar, and Cortosis, as far as I know, are all the metals that resist sabers, and Cortosis is by far the most interesting as it actually disrupts the blades.

Had to watch twice because I didn't pay attention to what you said as much as how you said it first time around. Funny how you couldn't put away your accent after starting out with it. I love it.

"Yeah, that's right... Baseball sux."

Did you know... Chuck Norris can kill two rocks with one bird.

I needed to hear that!

Kyle my friend, you need a vacation. Recharge, reload. This isn't a criticism on production quality, the shows are still awesome! Just an observation

If you could find a way to block or redirect gravity, you could mold the event horizon of the black hole into the shape of a saber AND deal with the weight and attraction issues. If i'm remembering correctly, the singularity of a black hole (and thus, the black hole itself) is a single infinitesimally small point. The event horizon is just the radius at which light can no longer escape. In a way, the visible portion of the black hole is just a gravitational projection being emitted by the singularity. Any object that passed through whatever you were using to stop gravity and came into contact with that event horizon would then be subjected to the black hole's gravitational attraction. This would require new physics and likely also require a lot of energy, however.

If you could find a way to block or redirect gravity, you could mold the event horizon of the black hole into the shape of a saber AND deal with the weight and attraction issues

That impression is actually pretty good Kyle lol I vote for Kyle to play him if a remake was ever done of Dazed and Confused

Hey Kyle, (or Kylo if you’re going by your new super villain name!) Long time viewer, first time subscriber. Awesome show btw - makes me feel my MS in Engineering isn’t for nothing! Question for you: If it’s cold outside (let’s say freezing), and I need to walk from the store to my car without a jacket (let’s say 100m). Would I lose heat faster if I walked, or if I ran to my car? (The idea being that by running, the wind should possibly cool me faster however I’d be outside for a shorter period of time). Looking forward to your next video so I can take a stab at getting a Super Nerd plaque for my wall! Jim

I need to hear it Kyle!

Kyle you should do a video on how light colors mix and how we perceive light . Keep up the good work!

Hey Kyle, phenomenal show. Sounds like we need an entire episode on Baseball...

8:32- 8:37 i snorted and almost pee'd myself laughing

Hey Kyle, irrefutably amazing show. I know this probably won't make it onto a BS ep because I'm commenting on a Footnotes ep, but I actually had a conversation with a friend of mine a whole ago about the possibility of a black lightsaber. He tried to argue that it was possible and I tried to get him to understand that based on how conductivity and thermal radiation work, a lightsaber could never actually be black. I then tried to hypothesize how it COULD possibly exist, for the sake of it being in the Star Wars universe, and the only conclusion that I could come to would be that whatever the lightsaber blade is made out of must be a material that only exists in the Star Wars universe and when it is excited, or given energy, it begins to absorb more light. I then explained how this would be technically impossible to happen because even if you were to increase whatever temperature it takes for a material to start getting off electromagnetic radiation in the visible spectrum, it would never actually give off no light at all unless it was below absolute zero somehow. In conclusion, we realized the only way that a lightsaber could actually be black is if it was the exact OPPOSITE of a lightsaber and was somehow an Absolute Zero Sword, or a CryoSaber (Coined by friend)

I am far from the first comment, but may I just say your great Kyle (and the rest of the team(which may or may not exist)will also be credited here) .

7:50 well there was a crystal in Legends lore that was capable of creating an invisible blade but it was only by description and there was no known user of such lightsaber, especially considering that this crystal was extremely rare and hard to obtain, but not black

I had a big chunk of teal fordite-like solid paint. It was from a jar of paint that hadn't been closed all the way and was left sitting in a shed for at least 10 years, maybe 20. I had to litterally peal away the hard plastic jar from it because the lid had been welded to the jar by the paint. It had these cool rings of alternating light and dark colors. Maybe it was from drying at various temperatures throughout the years until if finally finished. It had a bubble just under the surface that gave it a bulge. I eventually decided to see how far down the bubble was, so I tried hammering a nail into it... the nail bent and the tip of the nail mushroomed... it was crazy. I eventually just used a carbide drill bit... it was only about 1/16 of an inch thick, but that little dried paint dome withstood at least 100 hammer blows, most of those with a nail unbetween trying to break in. Too bad I lost it like 5-6 years ago when I moved.

I get the sneaking suspicion that Kyle recently watched Dazed and Confused again. :-D

lool my boy nate tryna get back in the show. LET HIM ON CAMERA

About the lightsaber cutting through boba's fett armor, there isnt any problem because Fett's armor wasn't actually a true Mandalorian Armor, it was made in the same shape, but, is was made from the metal that is used to make spaceships, which is a relatively strong material that can withstand blasters but not lightsabers. That is due to the fact that the fetts were not actually real mandalorians, therefore, they did not had access to the special metal called Beskar, that can only be found in Mandalore (the mandalorian planet) and Concordia (Mandalore's Moon). Although, Beskar is one of (if not) the most resilient metal in the franchise, there is a few others that can be used against lightsabers. Neuranium and Phrik are similar in reslience to Beskar but even more rare to find. Cortosis and ultrachrome are weak and brittle but they turn off (defuse) any lightsaber that they come in contact with, it is explained that they do something like a feedback loop that short out the sabers.

... I literally was thinking 'I want that hoodie' and you said 'You can get this at the Nerdist store'... as casually as if it were a genuine conversation...

"Baseball sucks" okay Kyle that's fighting words!

Kyle making Star Wars jokes.. RU-vid: "Cue Star Wars commercials!"

Lmao! “I don’t know who out there needs to hear this... so I’m not gonna say it!”

With that baseball comment you cut off one whole island of of your watch numbers xD

Hey Kyle please do a Gundam themed video.

Baseball quote was dope AF

On the lightsaber more like a gas discharge thing, one could also suppose the lightsaber giving a lot of light from its heat, while ALSO emitting peaks of other wavelengths, thereby causing the eventual colour we see. Though at the same time, I think that puts either a maximum on how hot a green lightsaber can be, or requires it to have a rather overwhelmingly bright green peak, or have most of the light caused by heat to be outside of the visible spectrum. This is interesting, I might want to do some math to see what comes out of it.

3:06 Matthew Mcconaughey possessed Kyle!

Felt like a different Kyle this video. Long day of filming? Tough week? We’ve all been there

Kyle: "baseball sucks" Japanese: "I see that someone is wanting to go to the lewd tentacle torture chamber..."

In canon the green light sabers held by those who have a stronger connection to the force while blue is for the more combat efficient

Hey Kyle, love the show! Quick correction on your statement regarding lightsaber colors being related to their temperature. While that may be true if they existed in our universe, in the Star Wars universe however, they get their color from the crystal used in the creation of the hilt.

Hey Kyle, love the show. Just wanted to point out that in Star Wars lore, the color of the beam of a lightsaber is reflected in the crystal that used to focus the sabre, that is almost invariably how the color of the beam is chosen.

The fundamental problem we run into with almost any kind of Force Field is E=MC^2. Which basically tells us that MATTER is incredibly ENERGY DENSE. (C^2, in fact). This means that one of the strongest imaginable fields of force we can put up is in fact... A nice armored hull of plated titanium/osmium alloy or something similar. That simply represents a huge amount of 'energy' placed between you and whatever is trying to kill you. That doesn't mean that we can't project an energy field with very high energy densities that approach or even exceed that of solid matter, but it does mean that the amount of energy we need to project those fields is *vast*. This is also why slug throwing weapons are unlikely to ever be fully supplanted by energy weapons, a solid slug of fast moving matter simply carries a huge amount of extremely dense energy that's very difficult for any laser or particle beam to match. However, all is not lost for the idea of a force field. One advantage that you could potentially get with a force field vs old fashioned armor is the concept of deflection at a distance. If you can extend your 'force field' some considerable distance out from the hull of your ship - say, a hundred km or more - you might only need enough energy to slightly nudge or deflect an incoming projectile or particle beam to cause it to miss your ship altogether. Now, alas, projecting fields over significant distances has its own additional burdens in terms of energy requirements and technical issues, but it is nevertheless a lot less energy intensive to gently redirect the trajectory of a relativistic slug or energy beam than it is to try to halt it outright just a few meters from your crew compartments.

KYLE!! I love the show and I never miss an episode!! BUT I had to stop and offer a small correction to your correct correction and a cool/scary explanation of why. I recently learned a bit about antimatter. Feel free to correct my correction of your correction if I'm incorrect but an antimatter darksaber would do much more than destroy a city upon use. 1 teaspoon of antimatter has the same energy equivalent of 10 nuclear bombs The blade of a lightsaber is about 3feet long and 1inch in diameter 1 teaspoons volume is about 0.300781 cubic inches so 1 cubic inch is about 3.32468 teaspoons and The volume of a lightsaber blade is 113.1 inches If we take 3.32468 teaspoons amd multiply by the volume of a lightsaber we get about : 376.021308 total teaspoons of antimatter!! If 1 teaspoon of antimatter is equivalent to 10 nukes and (as per the New York Post) research argues that 100 can destroy society.. an antimatter darksaber would have the one time use equivalent energy of 376,000 nukes.. enough to obliterate every last square miles worth of life on this planet and have more than 250,000 nukes worth of energy (depending on the nuke) left over, possibly going on to reach outward and destroy neighboring planets(not including fallout). Scientist have yet to study the effects of antimatter explosions on modern society but I think we can all agree that an antimatter light/darksaber can stay in a galaxy far far.. vary far far away.

8:58, technically kyle, this clip you showed didn't cut the helmet itself but uncovered neck below it - that is if you mean the Jango's beheading in there.

Kyle doing his weird helium voice woke up my cat and she was super distraught because it sounded like a kitten. Thank you Kyle, for scarring my cat.

It kind of blew my mind when my Physical Chemistry professor referred to gravity as a force field.

Lightsaber color is the result of the bond formed between the user and the kyber crystal used to focus the energy of a power grid. These crystals were force attuned living organisms that are colorless until chosen by and bonded with a force user. The reflect the spiritual alignment of their user. They are naturally attuned to the light side of the force, meaning to use one a sith must force the crystal to submit to their will causing it to 'bleed' and turn red

I always thought the dark sabre was just a plasma that emits light at frequencies we can't see. It still blocks light from the other side, so instead on being transparent, it would appear black. The edge would simply be spillover in which the light is stretched to drop down into visible, violet light.

I have been fascinated with the neutron star slingshot theory

Haha your voice that was a cross between G.W. Bush and Bill Clinton cracked me up

Actually antimatter only works with this matter equivalent so anti-matter helium only blows up when it touches regular helium and so on and so forth

A correction for your correction Mandalorain Iron (Beskar) is not the only lightsaber proof material in Star Wars cannon There are actually quite a few materials that lightsabers cant cut through its just that Beskar is the most reliable because it will survive multiple strikes without damage while the other materials will be damaged after a few strikes

I’m glad you guys considered the anti-matter dark saber.

There is a tech that creates IR field around an object, in 1980ties it was planned to use it for tanks, then they understood it requires too much power

Kyle, you would crush at "Um.. actually" by College Humor. I'm sure this isn't the first time you've heard this, but I would love to see it. Also, Boba's helmet isn't made of Beskar, if it was it wouldn't have a dent in it.

hey Kyle I got one that is nerdy and interesting. I saw a video comparing Bankai in the anime Bleach, one was Rukia's that creates an area around her and flash freezes it to 0K (absolute zero) and another was Yamamoto's that makes his sword burn at 15,000,000 degrees was the stated numbers but the official sources uses the wording, his body and blade are coated in the flames of the sun. so im curious what would happen if Yamamoto's bankai was active and he was suddenly in absolute 0 and both constantly tried to maintain their temp?

Have you seen a rock that isn't a rock Have you seen a ROCK LOB-STER! *80's synths intensifies*

I am not sure if this applies but in Star Wars canon there is one very rare kyber crystal type called Ghostfire crystal. Only harvested from a very particular rock formation found on a handful of planets, the ghostfire formations were precarious spires of transparent stones typically found on mountain peaks. When harvested and inserted into a lightsaber hilt, the crystal produced a near translucent blade, that shone dimly and left an illusory afterimage of the wielder and saber. Aside from their lack of color, the blade was made more unique in that it did not resonate with the legendary thrum of most lightsabers; instead it was nearly completely silent. starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Ghostfire_crystal

There goes the Hawking radiation hypothesis. As Kyle stated, when matter and antimatter make contact they annihilate each other and release energy. Energy is neither created nor destroyed according to the laws of thermodynamics. The proposed Hawking radiation that is claimed to have been observed does not release energy so it is not matter and antimatter appearing out of the nether and annihilating each other.

Actually in the star wars universe lore, bobba Fett's armor is made of composite materials, not beskar so it would be able to be sliced by a lightsaber. And Mandolorian armor is not the only kind of armor that is lightsaber resistant. The ultrachrome armor by Captain Fasma is lightsaber resistant as well. Also the orbelisk armor of Darth Bane is, along with crab armor of the Yuuzhan Vong in the legends lore.

I must say (after getting a bachelor degree in physics) that the fact that there are no green stars is literally the first "literally new" thing I have ever learnt on yt

5:49 Ha. Take that Sith Lords!

Have to be that guy, and point out they actually introduced a special armor in a recent book, that uses an energy diffusing root woven into fibers of the armor. It makes the armor blaster proof (by being energy Kevlar), and somehow shorts light sabers, so they turn off. It wasn't totally explained, but it felt hand wavy enough to follow along.

I was under the impression that the color of a lightsaber depended on the kyber crystal that they had to find and install their personal energy into. Therefore the light side of the force makes things in a cooler Spectrum the blues green purples Etc, and the dark side installs the warmer colors like an orange red or colors of that nature.

Shout out to Kyle for that perfect Matthew McConaughey impression though.

I remember one theory that I saw on a forum once that lightsabers are electron stripping to heat objects, is this actually a viable explanation?

Hey Kyle, really love the show keep up the good work! So the other day I was bored and decided to do some basic math that I think you’ll appreciate. So I drive for a living, and I’ve driven 50,000 miles this year alone in my work van that gets 15 MPG. So I looked up how much CO2 is produced when you burn a gallon of gas. So I’ve used roughly 3,333 gallons of gas this year so far, and a gallon of gas burned produces (roughly) 20 pounds of CO2. So then I looked up how much CO2 a tree removes from the atmosphere a year. The number I found was about 50 pounds. So by my calculations, I would have to plant about 1333 trees just to remove my carbon footprint alone! (Quick note, I didn’t use significant figures or anything of that nature. I rounded the numbers up so it’s not exact, but it’s a rough estimation. Also I’m not great at math so if I did something wrong please correct me!) ((also sorry I used LBs and not KGs, I know it’s not the science standard but it works for me)) Take care man, hope you have a good day!

Oh, but Kyle *begins tapping desk vigorously* uHuUhHUuUhHuHuHuHUUuhHuHuuhHhhUuHuHUHUHUH!!!!!

8:41 counter correction: boba fetts helmet isn’t made of beskar like a real mandalorian helmet.

But I needed to hear it

1:20 I’m glad someone finally said it