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Uses for "Pulsing"


Arondell

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The apparent general public perception of "Pulsing" in Alloy of Law is that its a not very useful ability. More useful then an aluminum misting but that isn't saying much. I must admit that I found it a little odd that in the roughly three hundred years since the it was discovered no one thought of useful applications so I decided to try thinking of ways to use it.

1. Law Enforcement : There is the way shown in the story of course but I could imagine lots of other ways this might be useful in law enforcement. Being able to slow down bad guys could be used in all sorts of conditions. Especially since you can throw the effect over larger areas then you can with "Sliding".

2. Medicine : Having a pulser available in a hospital or part of an emergency rescue team of some sort could be extremely useful. Being able to effectively pop a trauma victim into stasis until appropriate help can arrive has great life saving potential.

That is with only giving it a couple minutes thought. Any other thoughts out there on useful applications?

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The scientific community could use it to slow down experiment reactions, as well as the pulser was protected from any adverse effects of said reactions (explosions?) since high speed cameras are not available to record and slow down the reaction after the fact.

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I forget who it was, but someone suggested that Pulsing would be useful for scene-changing/set dressing during plays or other live performances. The audience would be in a bubble of slow time while the stage changed faster than they could perceive. Suspension of disbelief maintained.

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Sliding would be more useful for theater, since the effect would be close to what Wayne does on a regular basis. An audience would (I think) prefer to have a show go more quickly and effectively rather than have themselves held while the world moves around them.

The various uses of stasis in any sci-fi setting apply though. I could also see a Pulser using it as a sort of personal one-way time machine.

If the next Mistborn trilogy is set in a contemporary period (and more-or-less 100 years after Alloy) I'll be very surprised if we don't see Marasi around, much older but certainly not as old as someone who couldn't slow down their personal time on a regular basis, stealing a day or two here or there across a lifetime.

(I'm guessing about Maraci being in the next trilogy. I'm not speaking based on any internal knowledge).

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Sudden thought!

A Cadmium savant would be able to really slow time down. If Marsh hasn't been sitting on his rear and somehow got himself a cadmium spike, he could slow down time for himself; effectively 'jumping' through time, making himself not have to use as much atium to stay young.

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Or really any kind of emergency work-pulse a burning house while the fire department comes.

2. Medicine : Having a pulser available in a hospital or part of an emergency rescue team of some sort could be extremely useful. Being able to effectively pop a trauma victim into stasis until appropriate help can arrive has great life saving potential.

That is with only giving it a couple minutes thought. Any other thoughts out there on useful applications?

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Sliding would be more useful for theater, since the effect would be close to what Wayne does on a regular basis. An audience would (I think) prefer to have a show go more quickly and effectively rather than have themselves held while the world moves around them.

The various uses of stasis in any sci-fi setting apply though. I could also see a Pulser using it as a sort of personal one-way time machine.

If the next Mistborn trilogy is set in a contemporary period (and more-or-less 100 years after Alloy) I'll be very surprised if we don't see Marasi around, much older but certainly not as old as someone who couldn't slow down their personal time on a regular basis, stealing a day or two here or there across a lifetime.

I think if the theater had to choose between the two they would probably use pulsing since cadmium apparently burns slower then bendalloy and would be cheaper to use.(I hear stage plays often have budget issues.) :P

I would expect Pulsers would have longer average life spans. Depending of course on how often then use their ability. Marasi didn't seem to use hers very much. :huh: On the flip side I would think sliders would have a much shorter life span. :(

In a more contemporary setting I would imagine that both pulsing and sliding could potentially play havoc with computer systems. Especially if only part of the computer was in the bubble. Walk into a server room and do a very brief pulse/slide and watch the server crash.(Nefariously useful.)

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That's an excellent question: How would time bubbles affect wires passing in and out of them? Would data transfer normally?

It shouldn't, but we don't get red-shifting either. Knowing that it's a problem, you could probably engineer systems around it (debouncing all power/data lines; heavy data packet redundancy; etc.)

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I wonder if pulsing could be used to slow down someone falling from a great height, giving other people time to rescue you? How it interacts with gravity is an interesting question.

Ok, let's say that you are a pulser and that you are falling off of a high cliff. You realize right away that you are falling, and so you put up a slow time bubble. Gravity continues to affect you normally, but you proceed though time at a slower rate than the rest of the world. A simple formula for the position of a falling object: v=g*t, where v=velocity, g=acceleration due to gravity (9.8m/s), and t=time. How fast you are going depends entirely on your frame of reference. Say that you are able to slow time by a factor of 1:100, 1 second for you takes 100 seconds in the outside world. So, your velocity depends entirely on how much t you personally have experienced.

As you fall you accelerate normally relative to the speed bubble (assuming that the bubble is fixed in space relative to the cliff [not necessarily true, see trains]). So after falling for 1 second from your perspective your speed is v_p=g*1. But from outside the bubble the same 1 second took 100 seconds, which means that your apparent velocity(relative to the world) is v_w=g*1/100, a much slower speed. That speed is so much slower that (if someone noticed you), they would be able to try and get help for you.

But what happens when you reach the bottom of your speed bubble? In our universe you would undergo spagetification as parts of your body come out of the slow time zone and begin falling much faster. But I don't think that's the case, see: this theory. Assuming that you come out of the slow time as a unit, you would accelerate (relative to the world) to your personal t, so if it takes 2 seconds to fall through the bubble, your velocity(relative to the world) just after exiting would be v_w=g*2. So you undergo apparent acceleration from the world's perspective. from your own perspective, you are going at v_p=g*2 as well, because that is the t that controlls your speed. Therefore, from your own perspective, it takes just the same ammount of time to fall while you are burning as when you are not; but the world moves much faster that you do while you are inside the slow time bubble.

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Ok, let's say that you are a pulser and that you are falling off of a high cliff. You realize right away that you are falling, and so you put up a slow time bubble. Gravity continues to affect you normally, but you proceed though time at a slower rate than the rest of the world. A simple formula for the position of a falling object: v=g*t, where v=velocity, g=acceleration due to gravity (9.8m/s), and t=time. How fast you are going depends entirely on your frame of reference. Say that you are able to slow time by a factor of 1:100, 1 second for you takes 100 seconds in the outside world. So, your velocity depends entirely on how much t you personally have experienced.

As you fall you accelerate normally relative to the speed bubble (assuming that the bubble is fixed in space relative to the cliff [not necessarily true, see trains]). So after falling for 1 second from your perspective your speed is v_p=g*1. But from outside the bubble the same 1 second took 100 seconds, which means that your apparent velocity(relative to the world) is v_w=g*1/100, a much slower speed. That speed is so much slower that (if someone noticed you), they would be able to try and get help for you.

But what happens when you reach the bottom of your speed bubble? In our universe you would undergo spagetification as parts of your body come out of the slow time zone and begin falling much faster. But I don't think that's the case, see: this theory. Assuming that you come out of the slow time as a unit, you would accelerate (relative to the world) to your personal t, so if it takes 2 seconds to fall through the bubble, your velocity(relative to the world) just after exiting would be v_w=g*2. So you undergo apparent acceleration from the world's perspective. from your own perspective, you are going at v_p=g*2 as well, because that is the t that controlls your speed. Therefore, from your own perspective, it takes just the same ammount of time to fall while you are burning as when you are not; but the world moves much faster that you do while you are inside the slow time bubble.

If I understand you correctly, you're saying that you'll hit the ground with the same force as if you hadn't put up a bubble, but while you're in the bubble, other people will have more time in which to replace the ground with something soft and squishy.

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Given that we've shown how Wayne's bubbles remain static relative to their velocity and direction when placed (they don't "appear" to move, but they're on a planet spinning through space so they MUST be moving. Extrapolating from there, if you formed one on a train it would remain static in terms of velocity and position relative to where you placed it, and if the train went around a bend the bubble would keep going forward, because the train has moved away from the bubble), we could probably expect the slow bubble to do the same thing.

(SUPPOSITION EDIT - The part of the train which is within the bubble might drag the bubble with it, but I bet there's slippage. On the upside, within the bubble you should have PLENTY of time to recognize that the ground beneath you is moving away from your bubble position, allowing you to drop the bubble. I bet you probably fall down if you don't account for the ground suddenly moving very FAST when you drop into real time)

So I would say no... if you fire off the slow-bubble after having reached terminal velocity, then the bubble is going to fall with you in it. If you fire off the bubble in mid-air before you reach terminal velocity, then you'll probably fall out of the bubble (as Wax and Wayne and Marasi do in avoiding the bomb at Wax Manor). Though perhaps you would fall out more slowly (relative to the outside world) so it might allow for a BIT of time for others to help cushion your impact. It's really all about how fast you can bring up the bubble. If you did it right as you began to fall, it might make a real difference. The bubble could arrest acceleration (or appear to, in relative terms... inside you'd feel like you were falling just as fast), but not existing momentum.

EXAMPLE: Marasi hangs by her fingertips from a ledge 10 stories up. Her fingers slip and she falls.

IF she fires off the bubble before she slips, or even just at the moment she slips, to the outside world she appears to slip and begin falling in slow motion. Her bubble is either static (if she fired it off before falling) or it moves at whatever rate she was moving when she fell. If she's falling, she falls out the bottom, but to the outside observer this takes a little while to happen (inside it appears to happen as fast as it ever would).

IF she fires it off after she slips and begins to fall, but before she gets to a proper clip, the bubble continues to drop but she falls out of it. To a person outside, she falls very slowly for a moment, but eventually she does drop out of the bubble. Inside, she doesn't notice that she's going any slower at all, and for her it would only last a second or so.

IF she fires it off halfway down, she and her bubble continue to fall at the same rate, she just looks frozen inside. When her bubble impacts the ground, conservation of momentum suggests that she still goes splat (but at least it happened really fast from her perspective).

In either of the cases where her acceleration is arrested for a moment, if you could take advantage of that time to move a big crash-cushion under her, you might save her life. From her perspective, it would appear like film in fast-forward, with people zipping about and the cushion just appearing in place.

Edited by Inkthinker
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Given that we've shown how Wayne's bubbles remain static relative to their velocity and direction when placed (they don't "appear" to move, but they're on a planet spinning through space so they MUST be moving. Extrapolating from there, if you formed one on a train it would remain static in terms of velocity and position relative to where you placed it, and if the train went around a bend the bubble would keep going forward, because the train has moved away from the bubble), we could probably expect the slow bubble to do the same thing.

(SUPPOSITION EDIT - The part of the train which is within the bubble might drag the bubble with it, but I bet there's slippage. On the upside, within the bubble you should have PLENTY of time to recognize that the ground beneath you is moving away from your bubble position, allowing you to drop the bubble. I bet you probably fall down if you don't account for the ground suddenly moving very FAST when you drop into real time)

So I would say no... if you fire off the slow-bubble after having reached terminal velocity, then the bubble is going to fall with you in it. If you fire off the bubble in mid-air before you reach terminal velocity, then you'll probably fall out of the bubble (as Wax and Wayne and Marasi do in avoiding the bomb at Wax Manor). Though perhaps you would fall out more slowly (relative to the outside world) so it might allow for a BIT of time for others to help cushion your impact. It's really all about how fast you can bring up the bubble. If you did it right as you began to fall, it might make a real difference. The bubble could arrest acceleration (or appear to, in relative terms... inside you'd feel like you were falling just as fast), but not existing momentum.

EXAMPLE: Marasi hangs by her fingertips from a ledge 10 stories up. Her fingers slip and she falls.

IF she fires off the bubble before she slips, or even just at the moment she slips, to the outside world she appears to slip and begin falling in slow motion. Her bubble is either static (if she fired it off before falling) or it moves at whatever rate she was moving when she fell. If she's falling, she falls out the bottom, but to the outside observer this takes a little while to happen (inside it appears to happen as fast as it ever would).

IF she fires it off after she slips and begins to fall, but before she gets to a proper clip, the bubble continues to drop but she falls out of it. To a person outside, she falls very slowly for a moment, but eventually she does drop out of the bubble. Inside, she doesn't notice that she's going any slower at all, and for her it would only last a second or so.

IF she fires it off halfway down, she and her bubble continue to fall at the same rate, she just looks frozen inside. When her bubble impacts the ground, conservation of momentum suggests that she still goes splat (but at least it happened really fast from her perspective).

In either of the cases where her acceleration is arrested for a moment, if you could take advantage of that time to move a big crash-cushion under her, you might save her life. From her perspective, it would appear like film in fast-forward, with people zipping about and the cushion just appearing in place.

Good analysis, Inkthinker. It makes a lot of sense. I would have posted more in this thread on the subject, but I was stuck with an extremely slow input device for the past couple of days, and would have gone stark raving mad trying to do a careful analysis. Now you've gone and done it for me. Well, it all sounds reasonable to me.

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Given that we've shown how Wayne's bubbles remain static relative to their velocity and direction when placed (they don't "appear" to move, but they're on a planet spinning through space so they MUST be moving. Extrapolating from there, if you formed one on a train it would remain static in terms of velocity and position relative to where you placed it, and if the train went around a bend the bubble would keep going forward, because the train has moved away from the bubble), we could probably expect the slow bubble to do the same thing.

[etc.]

If the velocity of the bubble is constant, why don't they drift? Scadrial isn't just moving. It's spinning and orbiting. The spin should make the bubble move upward (although that might be minimized on a pole), and the orbit should make it drift away from the sun. We don't see either of these happening, even to a small extent. I think that pulsers and sliders subconsciously attach bubbles to things, specifically the cognitive or spiritual aspects of them (think spren). Most bubbles are attached to the planet itself, or perhaps the ground, so they maintain a constant position relative to it, irrelevant of spin or orbit. A pulser or slider on a train would probably instinctively attach the bubble to the train, so it would follow the train even if it changed velocity.

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I'm not sure why a bubble should change position because of spin and orbit any more than velocity or momentum. It's in relative equilibrium with those forces in the same way that anything else that exists on the surface of a planet is.

Though I suspect at a certain point in the physics we have to accept some handwaving. For instance, I'm not sure why the bubble isn't centered on the caster the way Push/Pull is. You would think it centers where the metal burns, but it appears to center at a point in space/time when it's cast, because the caster moves around within the bubble. Yet it must still be connected in some way, because it's drawing "fuel" from the metal burn.

I'm supposing that the point in space where a bubble is created comes pre-loaded with an existing momentum equal to that of the metal being burned at the moment the bubble is created, which is why it maintains relative position in space. But once it's created, the source fuel can move away while still fueling the reaction, and even a pedantic bastard like me has to throw his hands up at SOME point and go "magic! Whaddyagonnado?".

Edited by Inkthinker
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On the subject of uses for a Pulser I was thinking bomb squad. They could throw down a cadmium bubble and work on diffusing it in slow motion. While the building was evacuated around them. The other thing I was thinking was that if the explosion was inevitable, and there wasn't enough time to get civilians out, a heroic Pulser, and maybe a Nicroburst too, could effectively stop time around the bomb (or more likely make it go really really slow), sacrificing their lives in the explosion to let everyone else get out okay. I'm not sure if a Nicroburst would be a good idea though, it would slow down time inside the bubble more, but it wouldn't last as long, slowing time extremely for a second, and then no more. You might be better off with just a PulserBut it would be so sad to stand outside the bubble and watch as the Pulser was slowly consumed by fire of the explosion. This makes me wonder, when would the bubble go down, would it stop as soon as the Pulser ceased to live or when the explosion hit the edge of the bubble. It wouldn't matter to the Pulser but to the outside world it could buy them a few extra seconds

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This makes me wonder, when would the bubble go down, would it stop as soon as the Pulser ceased to live or when the explosion hit the edge of the bubble. It wouldn't matter to the Pulser but to the outside world it could buy them a few extra seconds

*AoL spoilers*

It would collapse when the Pulser died, I'm fairly sure. During the wedding fight, Wayne drops his Bendalloy bubble so that the Vanisher thinks he's dead.

Edited by Kurkistan
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Also have we seen anything that implies the pulser has to remain within the bubble? I mean if you can move around within it, can you not exit it the same as anyone else? And would the bubble collapse when you leave it? Or would it persist so long as you are burning the metal? If so then suddenly a pulser is much more useful.

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