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I got this problem on a work sheet. I think it pretty much speaks for itself. Edit: Apparently, Chaos is my Calculus 3 instructor. Small world...

I think it looks awesome, but….. "Do you have….you know…" Harry pushed his fringe aside. Ron's eyes widened. "So, ah, what is it supposed to be?" "Lightning, I think." "Really? I thought it kind of looked like roots, or a really weird carrot." "Please…please don't say that too loud…." "Why not?" "Haha!" someone shouted. "Carrot boy!" Harry sighed so hard his soul left his body.

Yup, that would be me! It's kind of surreal that someone would actually be my student and also be a 17th Sharder. I gave this out in 2014 and I thought it'd be amusing to give it out again. But yep, that's me. Apparently Brandon's supposed to be coming to Montana next year at Christopher Paolini's suggestion. He said this on Reddit, but we have no details quite yet, it seems. If you came to that, I'd definitely be there. When I taught precalculus, I gave a mixing problem where Kelsier was mixing some Allomancer's pewter. No one got the reference then, but when I gave this take-home in 2014 one person out of my two sections got it! This time slightly more have spotted the reference, so yay! And now for me to grade your quizzes

Holy rust. Chaos is my Calculus instructor! Okay. Brain overloaded. Rebooting for repairs.

I really like Marsh's PoVs in HoA. Also, he would definitely win in a fight.

@I_am_a_StickMarsh would win either way imo. Way too fast for vasher to hit and can kill from long range with coins. Plus emotional allomancy and atium, and he can push or pull on vasher's metal buckles.

Me and my dog izzy, after playing for a few minutes.

Chapter 4 will close on Tuesday, October 18th at 8PM EST! Chapter 5 will begin two hours later! Chapter 4: The Mad Hunt Sanis caught the ionBlade with one hand, never looking away from Lumina. Then he simply… sat, watching her, as the room murmured. Several offered their support for Lumina, but eventually every voice died away as they stared at Sanis, who still hadn’t responded. The silence stretched on. All the lancers began to shift uncomfortably in their seats. Lumina didn’t move, however. Trying to outwait me? she thought inwardly, somewhat amused. She maintained eye contact with him, prepared to wait all day if necessary. He had no other options now, and he knew just as well as she did that he’d have no chance against her in a fair fight. But he was a Gold, and Golds did not back down. Sanis stared back, imagining his hands slowly suffocating the life out of her as she could do nothing but thrash futilely, out of reach of any of her precious swords, struggles getting weaker and weaker... Finally, he smiled, conceding the point. He stood slowly, gripping the ionBlade, and bowed to the room with a flourish. “Well, then. Seems my little games have to come to an end. Pity. I would’ve liked to see Tiberius die.” Murmurs around the table. Sanis grinned. Lumina smiled, just barely. Thank you for that public admission of guilt. Would’ve been awkward if you’d turned out to be faithful. But she said nothing, simply walked to the edge of the table and hopped down, walking to the clear space beside the end of the table. Sanis wasn’t finished speaking, it seemed. “But he will die, soon enough. And let’s just say that those still faithful to him will not be looked upon with favor.” He strode into the space opposite Lumina, still confident, though he knew he was facing his death. “I’m not surprised I was caught. I wasn’t precisely subtle. My compatriots, on the other hand… Well. All the rumors you all heard about me? They were true.” He bowed to Lumina, perfectly correctly. She responded in kind, though her senses were alert for any hint of movement. Killing her while her head was down would be precisely his style. “My companions are worse.” Sanis charged wildly, waving the ionBlade with abandon. Lumina waited until the last moment, then drew the katana at her waist, blocking each wild strike efficiently and precisely. He faltered for a moment, having expected her to draw her razor. That had been the idea. She kept blocking for a moment. He was nowhere near as skilled a swordsman, yes, but even beginners could have a lucky stroke, and Lumina wasn’t particularly interested in being hit by an ionBlade. So she defended. It took Sanis a while to get fatigued. He was a Gold, and a relatively fit one. But he certainly wasn’t used to holding a heavy object above his waist for extended periods of time, and Lumina was. When she judged him tired enough, she attacked back, knocking his sword out of the way again and again, landing touches on his shoulders, hands, two parallel slashes on his cheeks. With a twist, she knocked his blade completely out of his grip and put the katana at his throat. Sanis’ hand twitched. He had a knife in the back of his shirt, as always. If he could just reach it… “And they say I’m Tiberius’ assassin,” he said scornfully. “You’re worse, Lumina. You’re his executioner. How does that make you any better than me?” That her way, the other party had a chance, she thought. But she didn’t speak. Duels were not places for words, and she had a reputation to keep up, after all. Besides, there was no need. Sanis reached for his dagger, but he wasn’t quick enough. All it would take was for Lumina to twitch her fingers, and Sanis’ throat would gape open. But when she did, she saw no blood, only felt... resistance. What? His hand was getting closer to the small of his back. Surprised, she swiftly brought the flat of the blade to her shoulder and swung it at his neck, desperate to finish him before... Too late. At once, Lumina's katana struck Sanis in the neck and broke, the fragmented blade landing on Nyanah's lap nearby. At once, Sanis' own knife flew at her and burrowed into her own throat, sinister delight pulling at the corners of his lips. She could tell that the knife just barely missed her artery, but still, that did not stop the darkness from overwhelming her. The last thing she heard before her consciousness faded was Spartacus yelling "Someone wake the Yellows!" as he slipped his arms underneath her and ran for the med bay. Sanis relished in the chaos. While a few of his fellow lancers sprint ahead of Spartacus to wake the Yellows, most of them just sat still and watched him, the War Room a mixed bag of emotions. Some stared at him with awe, others with interest, a few with plain indifference, but most of them with anger. In the end, Sanis decided he was not ready to die, and so he burst from the table and through the door closest to him, making sure to run the opposite direction of the med bay. Would anyone try to follow him? Surely. But despite already being wounded, he would escape. He had to. If he could just get outside the Aerie, Nero's men could grab him and bring him to safety until he was ready to fight again. Next time, he would win. As soon as Sanis leapt for the door, a flurry of motion erupted around Nyanah, though she hardly paid it any mind, for she was too busy staring at the blade sitting in her lap, or rather, lodged into her abdomen, to care much about anything other than her own mortality. Blood seeping through her clothes, the Bondsmith held her breath, refusing to draw any Stormlight in until there was no one left to watch her. Between her tightening lungs and the shredded nerves, she could feel unconsciousness creeping towards her, but then the last lancer was outside of the room and she ripped the blade from her gut, gasping for air, the last of her stormlight reserves flooding into her to mend the wound. Like Sanis, she would live to see another day, though this time, she reflected, I'll have to be a bit more careful if I want to get home. Hours later, when Lumina had finally awoke, she found herself fully healed, albeit a tad bit exhausted. Gently, she probed at the soft, pink resFlesh that made her neck whole again. Despite herself, despite the pain, the woman smiled, content that she survived Sanis' blade just as he had survived her own. Sadly she would not survive the assassin when they found her napping a few minutes later. Lumina didn't even murmur as the blood bubbled from her reopened throat, though her eyes did flick open to take in the face of her killer. And thus Lumina the Quiet would speak no more. Sanis was defeated in a dual, but survived! He was challenged by Lumina, who was cheered on by Spartacus, Magestar, Danii, Stick, Jefry, Nirgal, Priam, Khazad, Tia, Gregor, Nyanah and Sanis. Elbereth was Lumina au Julii, a Faithful lancer in the ArchGovernor's Employ. She was slain by an unknown assassin. Lumina's whisperGem contained the following message. Nyanah was attacked, but survived! Quicksilver's Coffers (2) holoCam(s) / holoBox(es), 10 Merit: Give your holoBox to another lancer and every action that you make or that is physically made against you will be recorded and relayed to them. (2) jamField(s), 15 Merit: Any device that is used within close proximity of you and another lancer you target is disabled (not destroyed). This can interfere with a Lunes research, but no other House ability. (2) stunFist(s), 20 Merit: Stun another lancer, preventing them from taking any further actions this Chapter. If your target is protected by a pulseShield they will not be stunned, although their pulseShield will be destroyed. (2) fleshMask(s), 25 Merit: Disguise yourself as another lancer, preventing any action that would be used against you at the cost of potentially becoming the target of an action that would target the lancer you disguise yourself as. Likewise, any further action you take will be observed as being executed by the lancer you impersonate. (2) ghostCloak(s), 25 Merit: Stealth yourself, causing any action that targets you to fail. In addition, you can stalk another lancer to discover the targets and actions they make, but you yourself are unable to take any more actions. (1) pulseShield(s), 30 Merit: Passively protects you from a single death (includes duels). (1) ionBlade(s): 40 Merit: A generic, energy-based weapon that's perfect for assassinations. Dramatis Personae Darkness Ascendant as Brown-Piercing Daniyah as Danii Doctor12 as Spartacus Assassin in Burgundy as The Jackal Magestar as Lucius Wonko the Sane as Sanis Jondesu as Quintus AliasSheep as Nirgal I_am_a_Stick as Stick livinglegend as Rylos Bugsy6912 as Sevro au Bellona The_Lady_of_Chaos as Tenebrum Elenion as Khazad The Young Bard as Gregor TheMightyLopen as Priam Burnt Spaghetti as Tia Arraenae as Nyanah Elbereth as Lumina au Julii Straw as Morsde jefrywlfersn as Jefry

I tried to get Siri, the virtual assistant on iPhones to call me the Lord Ruler. The conversation went as follows: Me: Siri, call me the Lord Ruler. Siri: I'm sorry, I didn't get that. Me: I WILL DRILL A HOLE THROUGH YOUR MECHANICAL BRAIN WITH A COIN YOU ARTIFICIAL SWINE. (Already playing the part of the Lord Ruler) Siri: I'm sorry, I didn't get that. Me: ...

Marsh, when it comes to combat he's just overpowered, also considering that he still has Atium.

On a happier note, it agreed to call me the Lord Ruler. Still doesn't agree to worship me though.

The universe of the cosmere is different from real-life, even without the influence of Adonalsium. On these planets, there is still the Cognitive Realm and the Spiritual Realm, and there are phenomena relating to these realms that don't come from Shards, but from ambient Investiture. On Threnody, there's a phenomenon in the Cognitive realm, which results souls not moving Beyond and staying as Shades. On First of the Sun, the birds have natural interactions with the other realms (like hiding someone in the Cognitive realm, or seeing the future using the Spiritual realm). Souls are made of Investiture, so that might be the source of this ambient Investiture. The planets also appear to have unique elements to them in how they interact with Shards and magic. In other words, if Harmony went and Invested in a different shardworld, it would manifest a new magic system, which would be distinct from what was seen on Scadrial. So, that's how different minor Shardworlds can have different manifestations. So, it's kind of like how RL earth has different ecosystems, even at the same latitudes/longitudes. Life in the Sahara desert is very different than in Central America, even without human interference and civilization to build cities and all that stuff. The South Pole got penguins, and the North Pole got polar bears. The different environments on different Shardworlds can result in different kinds of life and different ways to interact with native Investiture.

You think to tempt me with such measly upvotes? I'm voting for Marsh. Besides maybe Vin, he's my favorite Sanderson character. A fight between Marsh and Vasher could go either way, but in the end I think that Marsh would win. Even if Vasher knew he had to remove the spikes, I doubt he would be able to. And although I do like Vasher, I juts like Marsh's story so much better. The moment at the end of HoA when he Also, I'll be upvoting any votes for Marsh

Fan art of what Harry Potter's scar would look like if it actually looked like lightning.

Marsh. One of the most badchull characters in the Cosmere. Plus, he'd destroy Vasher in a fight.

Marsh. Amazing character with a great redemption story, plus he has a spike in at least one eye, so that's a plus.

So, after another reread, I began to form a theory about Taravangian. His boon from the Night Watcher was to gain the capacity to save the world. As we know from Book 2, this manifested in his "condition", where his intelligence varies by day. But so does his compassion and empathy. While super intelligent, he is amoral. On his most intelligent day, he was so unimaginably brilliant that he was thousands of times smarter than the average man, and created the diagram. This, ostensibly, was the blueprint by which he could save the world. But that day of unparalleled brilliance must have also been, comesurately, his most evil. The most evil a man can be. The most devoid of compassion, righteousness, or morals. Such is the nature of his curse/boon from the Night Watcher. I think the most tragic thing is that Taravangian was given the capacity to save the world. Truly and honorably. I think he's just decided to follow the wrong plan. Everything he's done, every evil action, has been the result of following a plan he decided on in one single day. A single day in which he was an utter, complete sociopath. On his dumber days, when he's not so dumb as to be drooling, he's consigned to anguished sorrow over the evil he's done because he's followed that one day's plan. But what if, on his less intelligent days, he was given the capacity to care enough that, using the resources he has as a king, he could really make a difference? But since he started following that damnation diagram, he's too paralyzed with guilt to do anything useful now when he's that compassionate? More than that, why is he trusting his most ethically bankrupt self with the safety of all humankind? I just think it's a massive mistake. He should be following a different plan. I dunno, this isn't really that important an observation. But it's about 4 am and I just needed to share my thoughts, haha ^^;

Just picked up Well of Ascension, Hero of Ages, Alloy of Law, Elantris, and Warbreaker. I'm fresh off my first Sanderson experience with The Stormlight Archives and I was blown away by how awesome it was. WoK was my first book after ASOIAF and I enjoyed it so much more than any one of those.

Don't treat the difference in years as a reason to adjust ages. If he says someone is 50, consider them equivalent to 50 on Earth, because they obviously (based on examples like Kaladin, Tien, Shallan, Adolin, etc) age equivalently. They act like the age we are told they are, not the one you have to do math to reach. Besides, Dalinar is the Blackthorn. He'll probably be incredible well into his 80s. jW

Just ran across this gem from Reddit (apologies if it showed up elsewhere on the forums already): Sounds amazing to me, very much looking forward to both the code monkey and Scadrial nerd culture, as well as the comics! jW

Got my signed copy of Elantris , with question answered! (They emailed me to clarify the question, which is why i got so in depth). Exactly what i emailed is below, typos included. The background to my question is this: It was once stated by Mr Sanderson that "Magic in the cosmere needs a guiding force. If it doesn't have one, the magic itself will gain sentience." We also have that things like Nightblood that gained sentience because of crazy amounts of investiture. My question then is: "Is the reason that investiture has this tendency to lead to sentience caused by the fact that pre-shattering Adonalsium had a goal/purpose/intent of bringing sentience to his universe." (I guess this is in a way a 2 part question, because it assumes that Adonalsium actually HAD the intent of bringing sentience to his Cosmere) And his answer: Yes, this is part of the reason. Good question!

Vin

"Come on, Siri. Just worship me a little bit?" "I'm sorry, I didn't get that." "Okay….Siri, can you swear?" "Yes, I can swear. What would you like me to say?" "Say 'Lord Ruler! I can't believe you'd do something so stupid!'" "I'm sorry, but even while blaspheming, I would acknowledge you as my god."

Why would you think that Rosharans age at the same rate as Earthlings? They don't....they're basically aliens. If a character is 19, he's 19

It was just a joke...

Is your teacher named Eric Lake? If so, that would be @Chaos

Hm, that's a good question. On one hand, Nightblood was also a solo entry in the tournament and is arguably his own character. But Vasher also uses it as a weapon throughout Warbreaker and it's feasible to say that he might use it here. I'm hesitant to say Vasher solo since I'm voting for Marsh and don't want to come across as biased, but that's the scenario that I had in mind. All of the other votes concerning Vasher haven't mentioned Nightblood (I think) but if enough people want to factor him into their vote, I don't have a problem with that. Hopefully I'm not shooting myself in the foot by saying so.

I thought it was a cat, curled up and snoozing away in somebody's busted front bumper. Yeah, it was a dead raccoon. Really glad I didn't pet it now.

Does anyone know anything about astronomy? Basically I'd like to know if the length of the Scadrian year (defined as the length of time for the planet to go around its star) would have changed when Rashek moved the planet closer to the sun. If so, that would have interesting implications for the amount of time it took the Well of Ascension to refill.

I swear I wasn't going to carry out the threat, I like my beef medium rare thanks.

As much as I want to play the underdog, this battle is over before it begins. Vin. (the upvote thing still applies)

Nightblood functions differently on Nalthis from Rosharan Shardblades on Roshar. The planet seems to have a big influence on how magics work. Roshar in particular has very much to do with bonds, which we know Nightblood can form. (Whatever bonds are - we don't really know how that works.)

I want to sign up for this game.

Now you have a new tool of class derailment

Earth is so dense largely because of gravitational compression, though. Mercury has a much higher iron/silicate ratio. A planet with Mercury's composition and Earth's mass would be much denser than Earth. Even at Roshar's mass, it should be somewhat denser.

Skyverea now has giant invisible snakes that turn into invisible raptors with four arms that turn into invisible stegosaurus/triceratops things that turn into invisible T-Rexes, but with usable arms. And they have a culture somewhat like ancient china. Is this weird enough? Do I need to make it weirder? How can I make it weirder? I feel like that last sentence is my creative mantra "How can I make this weirder?"

Yeah, I cant think of a single good reason for why he wouldn't use it. Shallan sure since she isnt a fighter but why wouldn't Kaladin use something that dramatically increases his fighting ability and chances of survival and victory? He's definitely going to get it sooner or later.

here i was dreaming of being a physics teacher and ask my students to calculate the geostationary orbit of roshar, when somebody did it already. ah, well, i'm a chemist.. at most i could ask the volume change of soulcasting air into stone...

Hey, welcome to the forums! Have an upvote! Have you read The Emperor's Soul or Warbreaker yet? Both are available for free online. I'll try to find the links for you if you like. In the meantime, don't take any cookies that are offered to you. They're spiked Your name is funny, by the way. I like the originality

I have a hefty problem... I am starting Part 3 of Golden Son, but I failed to book a reservation for Morning Star. I've just checked. It is available, but in another library. What are the odds it'd get deliver here before I finish Golden Son??? I have half a mind to either buy it and get it on Tuesday or drive to the said library to pick it up myself Even if I have to bravely face hordes of orange cones and the world greatest most terrifying road work pit to get there I mean, it is worth the drive, the stress, the impending hopelessness of driving through a real nightmare (seriously I live in a post-apocalyptic zone where every single bout of road is currently under-going massive transformation)?

The crab cracks YOU!

But we do have possible evidence that the circumference of Roshar is smaller than that of Earth. In one of the highstorm threads:

I'm sorry, I'm going to have to change that name. It seems a little insensitive. To everyone else, I'm sorry I haven't answered your clarifications yet. I'm going through them right now.

1 - 500 day year is from the perspective of the people on-planet, so it has to be solar day (sunrise to sunrise) not sidereal day (rotational period). 2, 3 - I don't think we know.

I'd like to join as a Sand Master if that's ok.

current Szeth is Susebron for the win

I hear the theory of one continuous storm often, and I think that it's even supported as a theory by characters in the books, however, I've never seen anyone post anything to back it up as a truly legitimate possibility, so I feel like it often gets unfairly discounted. So, without further ado, I ran some estimates for the circumference of Roshar from the in-book maps with latitudes marked by cross-referencing them with maps of Alethkar that show distance scales and came up with a minimum of 11,000 miles (really small for a planet...) I believe Isaac Stuart, who drew the maps and next to Sanderson would probably know best, has previously suggested the real figure is closer to around 15,000-18,000 miles (Earth's is about 25,000 miles for reference). The two closest highstorms I've identified in book occur about 60 hours away from each other at the same location (shattered plains). This means that in order to circle the globe the storm would only have to be traveling about 250 to 300 miles per hour (slightly higher than the most violent gust of wind ever observed on Earth). These would be devastatingly fast wind speeds, capable of collapsing buildings and, with the associated changes in pressure, probably create the necessary lift to launch boulders, particularly those that are long and flat, high into the air. Basically, the math is all there for one storm, which is periodically speeding up and slowing down, to be circling Roshar. The best way to prove that there is more than one highstorm present on Roshar at a given time would be to identify an instance of 2 highstorms hitting the same location within about 30 ish hours of each other. I think there are in-book references suggesting things like this might occur occasionally (still looking to make sure) but to my knowledge it's never happened on screen. The wind speed required for the storm to circle the globe in that amount of time would be virtually impossible. They would super heat the planet's surface simply by the friction of their passing (also suck buildings off the ground, regardless of any tilt in their walls), creating a chain reaction of steam blasts (resulting in earthquakes) that further fueled the storm. Sea creatures would be boiled alive, land creatures would be buried alive and swallowed by the planet's crust before being drowned, mountains would crumble, and the final result would be a hot liquid-gas interface of an atmosphere where, due to the ferocious thermodynamics of the situation it would be entirely unclear where the boiling sea ends and the burning air begins. Basically, it would be Damnation. TLDR; Wind speed is a delicate thing. When you're talking about super-storms, a simple factor of two can take a planet from "devastatingly inhospitable" to "completely uninhabitable."

I agree. Once we do the math, the characters ages become implausible with their behavior and described physical attributes. We may know one Roshar year length is longer than one Earth year length, but we do not know how the individuals age within this ecosystem. They aren't, genetically speaking, the same as Earth humans. Besides, I doubt the author intended his fandom to read the book with a calculator not to mention the greater majority of his readers are not even aware of this issue. I thus think the ages Brandon give us as the ages we should picture those characters: these are the references which we should use. The purpose to give a given character's age, within a story, is to give the reader a reference. You will not react to the same character if his age differs. It is a reference meant for the readers: I thus doubt the reference requires the readers to have read a WoB and to implement a mathematical formula no matter how simple. I have thus no issues picturing Dalinar as a very fit early fifties man: I see older men being very fit on a nearly daily basis. It is perfectly plausible to me.

God Beyond ... *sighs*

Granted. You now spend your extra time with the Heralds. In Damnation. I wish for nothing; I can get by. I wish for others who are worse off than I. Just kidding. I wish to be irresistible to women who I find attractive.