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So could the Surges of Cohesion and/or Tension be used on liquids like water, or would that not work? And could they be used on gases as well? Thoughts?

We know what most of the Surges of the Knights Radiant do, but we don't know the abilities that the Surges Cohesion and Tension grant. The WoR Ars Arcanum speaks of the "Strong and Weak Axial Interconnection", but what are these? After looking at the Wikipedia page for Cohesion, I have realized just how powerful the Surges of Cohesion and Tension may be; Cohesion is the property of like molecules sticking together. Cohesion is what holds a solid together, and what gives water its surface tension. With the ability to manipulate cohesion, these are some of what a Surgebinder might be able to do: Tension: Walk on water by drastically increasing its surface tension. Tension: Solidify air by increasing the attraction between its molecules. Cohesion: Vaporize people and objects by removing all Cohesion between their molecules. Cohesion: Use any sword as a Shardblade by weakening the Cohesion of molecules around the blade. Basically, a Surgebinder wielding Cohesion could melt or vaporize any object without changing its temperature, by decreasing molecular cohesion. This could be very useful in a fight as you could simply dissolve your opponents or their weapons. Tension, on the other hand, increases molecular cohesion, so it could be used to solidify objects. Please post replies of what you think that Cohesion does!

I am sure most of us at least once wondered how do this two powers work. Not only these two seem very cryptic, but also there are almost no clues about them. The only thing I managed to find out about them for sure are some WoB (which I can't find anymore) that tension (if I remember correctly) can allow you to press your hand into a rock. That left me wondering even more, because the cohesion is what keeps a rock together, not tension. Only today I found out a possible answer to this question. The tension is the force that interact with object pressing towards another object, and provides the force of reaction. Then imagine that we take this force away. Suddenly objest starts act like rubber - if it has a lot of cohesion and wants to stay intact regardless the bending, or if it has small cohesion like for example glass, it would liquefy. On the other hand if you add tension to rubber and water it would start behaving like rock and glass. Cohesion on the other hand would allow you to determine how difficult it is to break something apart. (Rubber to water, glass to rock).

Of the 10 orders of the Knights Radiant, seven are named after surges: Windrunners- Gravitation Skybreakers- Division Bondsmiths- Adhesion Elsecallers- Transportation Lightweavers- Illumination Willshapers- Cohesion Edgedancers- Abrasion That leaves three orders: Dustbringers Stonewards Truthwatchers that aren't named after surges. It also leaves three surges: Growth/Regrowth Transformation Tension that don't have a specific order focusing on them. Renarin (truthwatcher) states that he "sees things." That makes me wonder, do the other two orders have special powers too, or is it just a cool sounding name? Interesting note, Windrunner's order name focuses on gravitation, and Lightweaver focuses on illumination. Kaladin's book focused on gravitation, and Shallan's focused on illumination. Tell me what you think below.

Several months ago I posted a theory on what the surges of Cohesion and Tension do. Here is a link to that post, but I'll sum it up below: Cohesion: Weaken, or even dissolve the intermolecular bonds within a substance. Tension: Strengthen the bonds within a substance However, this theory has a major problem: the actual force of cohesion (wikipedia page) holds substances together, while in my theory Cohesion breaks them apart. Also, my idea for the Surge of Tension doesn't have much to do with what Tension actually is. (and the Coppermind page says that it alters the stiffness of an object.) So, here is my new theory for what the Surges of Cohesion, Division, and Tension do: Cohesion: Strengthen the intermolecular/atomic bonds within a substance or object. Example uses: - Create a wall of solid air by strengthening the bonds between the air molecules. - Make your armor virtually impregnable by strengthening the metallic bonding. Tension: Make a substance stiffer--increase its tension Example uses: - Stiffen a carpet, allowing people to walk on it--and then when they've fallen for your trap, release it, and watch them fall into your strategically located pit. - Walk on water by increasing its surface tension Division: Weaken, or even dissolve the bonds that hold an object together. The opposite of Cohesion. Example uses: - Weaken the intermolecular bonds that hold your enemies together, and watch them dissolve into piles of sludge. - Destroy the bonds that hold a wall together, allowing you to walk right through. That's my new theory. Please reply with feedback, speculation, and/or possible uses for these powers.