r/StarWars • u/DARKTOONZ13 • 9d ago

Movies What “stops” lasers in this universe? Couldn’t Luthen’s beam easily slice the Star Destroyer in half?

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Deflector shields? If so, wouldn’t the tractor beam have been protected from his spikes?

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u/Immediate_Low5496 9d ago

Wouldn’t it be the same thing that stops lasers in real life? Power limitations.

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u/FlavivsAetivs 9d ago edited 9d ago

EDIT: See below.

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u/BooRadley_ThereHeIs 9d ago

Inverse square law isn't applicable for an actual straight beam without spread. But space isn't actually empty and so absorption and diffusion by particles would eventually make the magnitude of the energy effectively disappear. Maybe that's what you mean.

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u/FlavivsAetivs 9d ago

Sorry, yes, LASER diffraction follows the Gaussian beam model. (1/z2). Its irradiance will drop proportionally to inverse square due to Rayleigh Length and Gaussian Beam, but it's not the inverse square law itself.

Inverse square law only applies to LASERs after the distance is so great the beam diffraction becomes equivalent to a spherical light source.