Now, I know that science fiction rarely requires any actual 'science', but I also find myself thinking about these things more often than not. Just how is it that hyperdrive works, how do light sabers work and how, most importantly, do blaster bolts do what they do?

I suppose that they are laser weapons that need to be charged; although how they get and maintain their charge is kind of a mystery. I'm sure there's some lore cannon extended universe explanation that makes perfect sci fi sense. I just don't have the time or energy to look it up, so everything in this post is going by what's been seen in the 11 official STAR WARS movies to date.

As far as I can tell, laser bolts fly out of the end of the barrel and hit targets. But real lasers don't maintain a bolt shape in midair. If you fire a laser IRL, it needs a constant beam. So what is a bolt then? Is there some kind of cartridge that when fired, surrounds itself with an energy shell in order to penetrate armor, and then is instantly incinerated on contact with a target? To me, that makes a lot more sense. A laser is just concentrated light, and they aren't even called lasers, but blasters. I'm just going to go with my explanation that it's a mini rail gun type of weapon that fires cartrigdges (no outer shells like bullets have) that, once fired, instantly surround themselves with energy shells of usually red color and then, once impacting to a target, get incinerated. That works.