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Feruchemical decay and speed of investiture


Fallen Rope

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I was thinking about if Feruchemical steel could be used to go faster than light. I then remembered that feruchemy loses energy at when high amounts are tapped so it wouldn't work, but I noticed that using more power to get to high speeds is very similar to getting an object near the speed of light, you have to use a lot more energy to increase at high levels then low levels. So I have now created a theory of investiture relativity.

 

Feruchemical decay is an effect of special relativity it in spiritual realm, but instead of not being able to go faster then light, you can't tap investiture faster than a certain speed. In the physical realm you have to add more and more energy to go faster, in the spiritual realm you have to use more investiture to get a higher gain.

 

feurchemical decay.png

 

The investiture limit is different on different planets, since Scadrial is a low investiture world the effects are noticed at the low levels of feruchemy. Higher investiture planets would not notice the effects as much.

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Edited by Fallen Rope
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I'm not sure I follow.  Special relativity would apply if you're talking about, say, an immortal feruchemist trying to store speed for a few thousand years and then trying to run faster than the speed of light--just like it would apply to any system of conventional travel (ie, moving one foot takes you one foot, moving one mile takes you one mile, etc.)  There's nothing that we've seen so far that I'm aware of to indicate a maximum speed that a feruchemist could run that is dependent on the magic system, and not physics itself.

 

The energy loss seems to be due to similarities of thermodynamics, and that there is no 100% energy transfer possible.  Because it's magic, instead of modern day engines or generators, the efficiency ratio is just really, really high and so it's hard to notice until you get into the incredible amounts of stored energy for conversion.

 

(I realize my physics may be a little bit wobbly, but I'm pretty sure my explanations are essentially correct.  Also, apologies if I misunderstand what you mean by your post.)

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The loss of heat idear seems to ruinous to me. Awakening is end neutral like feurchemy but no breaths seem to be lost or weakened.

My basic idear was that since having to put in more energy when getting closer to the speed of light is similar to having to tap more when getting to high level of what was stored, they are both being caused by relativity in different realms.

Turns out I was wrong about it having to be special relativity because you still have to put in more energy to go higher speeds in normal physics.

So my new idear is that the power in a metal mind is energy, the amount of power you get is like momentum. So having to use more and more energy to get to a higher momentum is what causes the decay. So no energy is lost but more is used.

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SPORKIFY (18 OCTOBER 2008)

And this is more towards the whole physics stuff, but is Feruchemy really balanced? If it gives diminishing returns, wouldn't this end up as a net loss of power?
 
BRANDON SANDERSON (20 OCTOBER 2008)
It doesn't diminish. Or, well, it does—but only if you compound it. You get 1 for 1 back, but compounding the power requires an expenditure of the power itself. For instance, if you are weak for one hour, you can gain the lost strength for one hour. But that's not really that much strength. After all, you probably weren't as weak as zero people during that time. So if you want to be as strong as two men, you couldn't do it for a full hour. You'd have to spend some energy to compound, then spend the compounded energy itself.
 
In more mathematical terms, let's say you spend one hour at 50% strength. You could then spend one hour at 150% strength, or perhaps 25 min at 200% strength, or maybe 10min at 250% strength. Each increment is harder, and therefore 'strains' you more and burns your energy more quickly. And since most Feruchemists don't store at 50% strength, but instead at something like 80% strength (it feels like much more when they do it, but you can't really push the body to that much forced weakness without risking death) you can burn through a few day's strength in a very short time if you aren't careful.
 
FOOTNOTE
When Brandon says "compounding" here, he is speaking in a purely Feruchemical sense.

 

The "lost" energy is a matter of using up some energy to be able to effectively use other energy in more and more "compressed" ways. The way I would phrase it, then, is that it's not a function of the amount of energy being handled, but rather of compressing down relatively small pieces of Feruchemical energy stored over days into big fat energy packets you can use up in a few minutes.

Edited by Kurkistan
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