Questions about carbonite.

Can a light or dark Jedi avoid hibernation sickness? temporary blindness?

Can people be frozen in carbonite lying down instead of standing up?

Does force lighting that has been afflicted on a person before he was put in the carbonite even more deadly to that person?

How would you describe someone being released from carbonite? carbonite started to melt?

 

Hmmm...I don't know about the lightening or the Light or Dark side has to do with it, but I have some theories on the process...

This is my own opinion, but I see the carbonite freezing as being similar to our freeze-drying or super-cooling methods.

OK, without having to whip out my old thermodynamics books, I'll try to explain to the best of my memory. An organic substance suspended in a super cooled fluid would flash freeze very quickly. As this happens, the exchange of temperatures would naturally cause some of the cooling fluid to vaporize, as seen by the 'steam' in ESB. Normally, a freezing substance would have problems with cell damage due to the fact that water expands as it freezes. This doesn't happen to a great degree in 'flash freezing' because the freezing process happens so fast, the individual atoms in the water literally freeze, or stop, right where they are. This greatly reduces the chances of cell damage. Hhhmmmm...there is a lot of fluid in and around the eyes. Maybe this is why Han was blind for a short while? Someone with medical know how could answer that question better than I.

The basics of chemical reaction and thermodynamics teach us that all molecules and atoms are in constant motion. Gases move more than liquids which move more than solids. When freezing, the atoms realign into a solid, crystalline form. There is no time for this to happen in super cooling.

Anyway, I don't think it matters what position a person is in, they just get frozen. As far as coming out of it, I think melting would be just as good a term as any. In 'melting' the atoms start moving again. This usually lets off energy in the form of heat. My theory is, that's why you see the light when Han is coming out of it. There is so much energy being released (we're talking metal turning into gas here), that simple heat energy is not enough, so the atoms, in a super-excited state, literally cause a very small scale nuclear reaction which expels itself as luminesence.

Wow! I can't believe I actually remembered all that.

Hope this helps. I can look this up in more detail if you need it.

inez

 

Can a light or dark Jedi avoid hibernation sickness? temporary blindness?

Probably. By Han's account, he was "wide-awake" during the entire ordeal. A Jedi could probably avoid the side effects of carbon freeze by using a Force trance, a state of meditation, etc.

Can people be frozen in carbonite lying down instead of standing up?

Also probably--remember that Vader was all set to freeze Luke while he was lying in the pit in ESB.

Does force lighting that has been afflicted on a person before he was put in the carbonite even more deadly to that person?

Well, since carbonite essentially preserves the victim in hibernation, I wouldn't think it's much more dangerous. If anything, the body might be on the mend while hibernating.

Personally, I always described a person being released from carbonite as "thawing", since it's the opposite of freezing.

 

Keep in mind, as well, that carbon freezing units are not specifically designed to freeze living things. It was emphasized several times in ROTJ that carbon freezing a human is EXTREMELY risky. It probably differs from unit to unit, which is why Darth Vader only needed to test the unit once before knowing it would work on Luke, rather than suspecting each instance to be just as risky as the last.

 

I looked at the process of coming out of the carbonite as more of a chemical reaction. Since the metal alloys appear to be evaporating during some kind of catalyzed event. (Totally a layman's perspective)