Uses for Pulsers

[Voidus]

Of course brandon is free to use different physical laws for the cosmere.

Well obviously they are a bit different since there's magic But I don't think he'll just handwavium his explanation we figured that it has to do with time bubbles in some manner so there isn't any breaking of the speed of light in that reference frame.

[Aminar]

About the speed of light: the problem with reaching it is that, by the laws of relativity, the mass of an item increases as its speed approaches the speed of light, eventually coming to infinite. so it don't matter how much energy you store in there. when you are at the brink of light speed, it will not accelerate the object , but merely make it heavier. The conservation of momentum is respected, since increasing the mass causes the item to increase its momentum. That is the reason light speed cannot be achieved in our universe, no matter how much energy you use to accelerate.

Of course brandon is free to use different physical laws for the cosmere.

And once upon a time the world was flat. There are so many unexplained things in physics that nothing is required to be impossible by our understandings. Given what we know now its impossible but assuming we know everything we need to know is beyond arrogant...(sorry, rant about sciency folks never explaining the difference between theory and fact.)

In the end, given magic systems what's to say this can't be used to create some kind of infinite energy loop capable of pushing past light speed. Magic the Gathering has all kinds of infinite loops, why not Allomancy. And Cadmium seems to have the potential to store and create vast amounts of energy via resistance, although it would suck to be the Pulser stuck in the bubble... Hopefully the bubbles go through bulkheads...

[Kurkistan]

And once upon a time the world was flat. There are so many unexplained things in physics that nothing is required to be impossible by our understandings. Given what we know now its impossible but assuming we know everything we need to know is beyond arrogant...(sorry, rant about sciency folks never explaining the difference between theory and fact.)

<snip>

The reason why sciency folks don't stress the difference between theory and fact is that non-sciency folk tend to vastly underestimate the reliability of any "mere" theory. The theory of relativity has been tested and retested from day one with nary a flaw to be found. Within it's scope of application, there are no inconsistencies and it's predictive power is unimpeachable. It has a few convivial disputes with those quantum fellows on the fringes, but the core is sound, and resolving those disputes is what string theory and loop quantum gravity are being developed for.

The odds of relativity turning out to be fundamentally flawed are on par with those of the Earth actually being flat all along. Sciency folks don't call relativity a fact because it is still technically falsifiable, not because they lack confidence in it. (Sorry, rant about non-sciency folks underestimating science because it has the honesty to acknowledge when it's technically possible for a theory to be wrong).

Edited September 18, 2012 by Kurkistan

[happyman]

About the speed of light: the problem with reaching it is that, by the laws of relativity, the mass of an item increases as its speed approaches the speed of light, eventually coming to infinite. so it don't matter how much energy you store in there. when you are at the brink of light speed, it will not accelerate the object, but merely make it heavier. The conservation of momentum is respected, since increasing the mass causes the item to increase its momentum. That is the reason light speed cannot be achieved in our universe, no matter how much energy you use to accelerate.

Of course brandon is free to use different physical laws for the cosmere.

This is not a nonsensical way to view what happens, but probably not the best way. In modern physics, we avoid saying that mass of something moving near the speed of light is high; rather we say that its momentum and energy increase without bound as the velocity gets arbitrarily close to the speed of light. Thus you can continually add energy and momentum and not move faster than the speed of light. The word "mass" is nowadays usually treated as synonymous with "rest mass," or how much the thing of interest weighs when it is at rest relative to the observer.

There are older usages which use the terms differently, but experience has taught us that they just tend to confuse people without actually helping them understand what is happening. Also, they don't fit well into the modern understanding of general relativity.

It is also worth noting that in Special Relativity, the "speed limit" of light can be viewed very differently. It is possible to treat it as a geometric fact which comes from the (non-intuitive, non-obvious) relationship between space and time. With this approach, saying that nothing can travel faster than the speed of light contains no more information than saying that the triangle inequality from classical geometry is true. It's the shape of the universe, and the only way to mess with it would be to mess with the relationship between space and time.

Somehow I suspect that it's this last point that Brandon had in mind with Allomancy. Just a thought.

[king of nowhere]

We scientists are well aware than we don't know everything and that a new fact may force us to modify our theories. That do not make said theories wrong. They were approximations of reality, and they worked just fine within the boundaries we used them in before we discovered the flaw. Within those boundaries, they are still good, while a new theory developed to fix the flaw may be a better approximation of reality.

The canon example is newtonian's physics, that got proven false by relativity; however, it is still perfectly good for anything bigger than a chunk of atoms and moving much slower than light, so we still use it widely.

Now back about relativity:

that theory has been around for a century, has been tested in all possible conditions we could conceive, and has always resisted every attempt to falsify it (Note: this do not take into account compressing time or warping space or similar stuff; those may or may not be possible, still to early to say). It is certainly possible that in some particular conditions, which we have never reproduced experimentally, relativity don't hold anymore, and maybe we will find out in some near or far future. But even if relativity is proven flawed, it would still be good in all conditions we tested it to date.

So, if it is possible to surpass the speed of light - and every evidence we have to date says it is not - it would still require some pretty exotic conditions. Just accelerating an object would not work anyway.

I'm not sure what I wanted to argue for here. I wanted to clarify things a bit, but I realize many would find what I just wrote even more complicated.

Anyway, saying "this is a physical law that allows to FTL travel, but hasn't yet been discovered in our world" would still count as changing physical laws. But the cosmere has already some extra sets of physical laws that our universe lack, so it would not be a problem if some quirk of those laws allowed FTL travel. I just want it a bit justified. I am confident brandon will put an explanation consistent with the rest of the physical laws. He has enough scientific culture for that. In fact, as a nitpicking nerd, I appreciate him for that.

P.S. another set of laws that don't work in the cosmere is thermodynamics. You can make perpetual motion just by putting 3 (or more, or even less if you are careful) iron feruchemists on a wheel. they are to tap their metalminds when going down, and filling when going up, and bam, perpetually accelerated motion. I'm also pretty sure a brass feruchemist would be able to transfer heat from a colder source to a hotter one without doing work. Those would be ways to get free, clean, infinite energy, but it would be too little to matter on a practical scale.

[Straff Venture]

I am confident brandon will put an explanation consistent with the rest of the physical laws. He has enough scientific culture for that. In fact, as a nitpicking nerd, I appreciate him for that.

The thing about Brandon's writing is that it mostly stays with normal physical laws, but then you have to remember that in the cosmere the shards affect reality profoundly and are definitely going to break a few rules. The three realms are also a wild card, and as they are only really touched on slightly so far, I think they will have some interesting effects in the cosmere. I do agree though that its great how Brandon always has an explanation and keeps his magic as 'hard magic'.

[Aminar]

We scientists are well aware than we don't know everything and that a new fact may force us to modify our theories. That do not make said theories wrong. They were approximations of reality, and they worked just fine within the boundaries we used them in before we discovered the flaw. Within those boundaries, they are still good, while a new theory developed to fix the flaw may be a better approximation of reality.

The canon example is newtonian's physics, that got proven false by relrelativity wever, it is still perfectly good for anything bigger than a chunk of atoms and moving much slower than light, so we still use it widely.

Now back about relativity:

that theory has been around for a century, has been tested in all possible conditions we could conceive, and has always resisted every attempt to falsify it (Note: this do not take into account compressing time or warping space or similar stuff; those may or may not be possible, still to early to say). It is certainly possible that in some particular conditions, which we have never reproduced experimentally, relativity don't hold anymore, and maybe we will find out in some near or far future. But even if relativity is proven flawed, it would still be good in all conditions we tested it to date.

So, if it is possible to surpass the speed of light - and every evidence we have to date says it is not - it would still require some pretty exotic conditions. Just accelerating an object would not work anyway.

I'm not sure what I wanted to argue for here. I wanted to clarify things a bit, but I realize many would find what I just wrote even more complicated.

Anyway, saying "this is a physical law that allows to FTL travel, but hasn't yet been discovered in our world" would still count as changing physical laws. But the cosmere has already some extra sets of physical laws that our universe lack, so it would not be a problem if some quirk of those laws allowed FTL travel. I just want it a bit justified. I am confident brandon will put an explanation consistent with the rest of the physical laws. He has enough scientific culture for that. In fact, as a nitpicking nerd, I appreciate him for that.

P.S. another set of laws that don't work in the cosmere is thermodynamics. You can make perpetual motion just by putting 3 (or more, or even less if you are careful) iron feruchemists on a wheel. they are to tap their metalminds when going down, and filling when going up, and bam, perpetually accelerated motion. I'm also pretty sure a brass feruchemist would be able to transfer heat from a colder source to a hotter one without doing work. Those would be ways to get free, clean, infinite energy, but it would be too little to matter on a practical scale.

I'm just saying they are a poor way to counter a theory involving magic. Magic in and of itself breaks the laws of physics. You mentioned compressing time and warping space correct. Those could easily apply to a Cadmium Bubble. In addition I doubt Brandon has taken the time to work out all the facets of special relativity and how they apply to his writing. Working it out takes years of study and he's much better off just writing and trying to fit things into a sensical pattern that doesn't break anything obvious.

[Kurkistan]

I'm just saying they are a poor way to counter a theory involving magic. Magic in and of itself breaks the laws of physics. You mentioned compressing time and warping space correct. Those could easily apply to a Cadmium Bubble. In addition I doubt Brandon has taken the time to work out all the facets of special relativity and how they apply to his writing. Working it out takes years of study and he's much better off just writing and trying to fit things into a sensical pattern that doesn't break anything obvious.

First off, Brandon did actually put a fair amount of thought into the physical effect of time bubbles (enlisting the forums for help, no less), eventually making a conscious decision to make them unrealistic as applies to light so as not to have the Doppler effect gone wild, as I believe someone else mentioned on this thread.

Second of all, I believe that most of the negative reaction to your post was prompted by your "assuming we know everything we need to know is beyond arrogant...(sorry, rant about sciency folks never explaining the difference between theory and fact.)" That particular bit of rant went a bit further than just applications to magical realms.

Edited September 18, 2012 by Kurkistan

[Observer]

Brandon mentioned that the whole "All in or all out" thing depended in part on the cognitive aspect of the objects. Could this be the reason for the size-limit? Your cognitive aspect? There might be a way to mess with this to expand the bubble to rediculous sizes.

[Straff Venture]

Brandon mentioned that the whole "All in or all out" thing depended in part on the cognitive aspect of the objects. Could this be the reason for the size-limit? Your cognitive aspect? There might be a way to mess with this to expand the bubble to rediculous sizes.

Maybe thats why Wayne's speed bubbles are really so small, its just because of his minuscule cognitive aspect

[Observer]

Maybe thats why Wayne's speed bubbles are really so small, its just because of his minuscule cognitive aspect

+1 just for that. Heck yes.

He said "How it sees itself", which harks back to the Ardent chapter in Way of Kings. Is it self-esteem, or how powerful you see yourself as being? Or is it something more...

*Dramatic Theme Music: "Observers Mania, Opus 23, Number 4.76*

Edited September 29, 2012 by Observer

[Observer]

Whipping the dead horse to say that with our new info we could probably also gather information of somebody's cognitive aspect using time bubbles, which is cool.

[Lady_Yasha]

New use for a Pulser: Not having to listen to someone's rants or when you're being lectured you could just enter a speed bubble and waiting for them to leave will be seconds for you.

[Observer]

New use for a Pulser: Not having to listen to someone's rants or when you're being lectured you could just enter a speed bubble and waiting for them to leave will be seconds for you.

Oh wow. Now I wanna be a Pulser

Living time capsule. 'Nuff said there.

[CrazyRioter]

New use for a Pulser: Not having to listen to someone's rants or when you're being lectured you could just enter a speed bubble and waiting for them to leave will be seconds for you.

+1 to you, that's hilarious.

[ulyssessword]

If someone had Alien Hand Syndrome (Link) in the Cosmere, could they stick their arm out of the bubble, and have it actually be outside of the bubble? If so, it may be one of the more useful disorders to have.

[Guest Jacob Santos]

I always thought the use for the two time bubbles would be to create a warp drive of sorts.

[Kurkistan]

I always thought the use for the two time bubbles would be to create a warp drive of sorts.

Could you please explain how that would work, specifically?

[Guest Jacob Santos]

Could you please explain how that would work, specifically?

I'll try, but I'll most likely fail.

EDIT: Technically I need to flip the two, since you need to use the 'quick' time bubble to slow down everything outside of the ship or I mean speed up everything inside the ship and use the 'slow' time bubble to normalize the time for everyone inside.

A warp drive exists outside of space and time depending on whom you are referencing, but truthfully, it simply creates it own relativity and slipstream for moving really fast outside of the influences of other gravitational pulls.

From his last interview he has stated that two pulsars or time bubbles can compound with more people, expanding the bubble and its influence. Therefore, in a simplistic explanation, if you create a 'slow' time bubble outside of the ship, you can in effect move a great distance within a relatively short period of time.

I mean, the point of traveling at the speed of light is simply because of the relativistic time dilatation would allow you to 'jump' to the future. Something that the slow time bubble already executes. Therefore, you don't have to travel at the speed of light to go faster than the speed of light. The mechanics of FTL already exists without breaking the laws of physics.

By using a 'quick' time bubble inside of the 'slow' time bubble, you 'normalize' (I assume) the time dilatation for those inside. So, if you still have a space where the 'slow' time bubble exists, you can in theory create a warp drive.

The problem with moving the ship is, in my mind has to do with pushers and pullers. Brandon has alluded to the ability to 'fly' using a push and pull technique. Using this same technique you should be able to move the ship and given the space within the 'warp' bubble it should allow you to move.

I do rather like the idea of using the 'slow' time bubble and 'quick' time bubble to redirect energy in order to move the ship. It would work better than my idea of using some push / pull technique.

Or well, the two bubbles might already normalize in the cognitive realm and therefore by default have a warp drive capability by accessing that realm. It could be how travel to cognitive realm is possible.

EDIT 2

Well, no that isn't needed. Technically, by using two time bubbles, you should be able to create a warp bubble, which moves the ship based on the shape of the bubble, so no pushers or pullers and explosions should need to apply. To stop, you would simply move the two bubbles in sync with each other.

Edited November 19, 2012 by Jacob Santos

[Kurkistan]

I'm having a bit of trouble visualizing this, sorry.

I agree that a cadmium bubble could help with journey time by slowing the perceived time passed on the ship, but how exactly does any interaction of the bubbles actually get the ship itself moving >c in a normal frame of reference (or any frame of reference, really)?

One thing to keep in mind is that it is logically necessary that the "speed up" or "slow down" caused by time bubbles is all in relation to the frame of reference of wherever the bubble is anchored. So if a time bubble is moving through space with the ship, that ship will be moving the same speed no matter how many or what kind of bubbles you put around it (that speed being 0 mph from the ship's frame of reference and something <c from any other frame of reference).

As far as the Cognitive stuff goes, we really don't need to deal too much with it. We know that Cognitive aspects determine what's inside and what's outside the bubble, but I don't think they affect much beyond that.

From his last interview he has stated that two pulsars or time bubbles can compound with more people, expanding the bubble and its influence. Therefore, in a simplistic explanation, if you create a 'slow' time bubble outside of the ship, you can in effect move a great distance within a relatively short period of time.

...

The problem with moving the ship is, in my mind has to do with pushers and pullers. Brandon has alluded to the ability to 'fly' using a push and pull technique. Using this same technique you should be able to move the ship and given the space within the 'warp' bubble it should allow you to move.

I haven't seen these two yet. Could you link the interview, please?

Edited November 19, 2012 by Kurkistan

[king of nowhere]

now that's a good point to argue: time bubbles stand still can cannot be moved. but still compared to what? we know that the definition of "still" depends on the reference system. wayne's bubbles appeared to be still compared to the center of heart, but what if they are linked to the closer object of mass greater than x? what would be the reference system in deep space? maybe once you are far enough from a planet they will move with the spaceship.

but won't two opposite bubbles inside each other just cancel each other regardless of reciprocal size? I think it was stated in the book.

[Kurkistan]

now that's a good point to argue: time bubbles stand still can cannot be moved. but still compared to what? we know that the definition of "still" depends on the reference system. wayne's bubbles appeared to be still compared to the center of heart, but what if they are linked to the closer object of mass greater than x? what would be the reference system in deep space? maybe once you are far enough from a planet they will move with the spaceship.

Yeah, where they anchor is a good question. Given their strongly Cogntive nature so far, I would hazard that they anchor to whatever the caster thinks of as the ground/un-moving. Frame of reference is fun, as I found to my dismay.

but won't two opposite bubbles inside each other just cancel each other regardless of reciprocal size? I think it was stated in the book.

This one makes some sense, I think. Imagine Wayne throwing up a speed bubble while he is inside a cadmium bubble, moving 1/20th his normal speed. If he throws up a speed bubble (much smaller than and wholly contained within the cadmium bubble), then he'll appear to move (about) 20 times as fast as everyone else within the cadmium bubble, and about normal speed from the outside. The areas of overlap cancel, but not the entirety of both bubbles. This is covered in the RPG as well, if I recall correctly.

Edited November 19, 2012 by Kurkistan

[Guest Jacob Santos]

I agree that a cadmium bubble could help with journey time by slowing the perceived time passed on the ship, but how exactly does any interaction of the bubbles actually get the ship itself moving >c in a normal frame of reference (or any frame of reference, really)?

I think the problem is that there are two problems, you are applying one aspect to both as a solution and I'm not. The problem and solution to actually moving the ship is outside the scope of the time dilatation problem, which is what I'm giving an solution to.

The reference to creation of a warp drive using both bubbles is an reference to the gravitational well that is itself a sort of bubble. In the wikipedia article on warp drives, the graphic shown is what I was referring to. It was an one-off in a sort of attempt to compound and give an alternative to the original theory.

Well, I guess I see your point. The bubbles merely manipulate time and not space itself, therefore it couldn't move a ship like a warp drive could. However, thinking about Alloy of Law, a bubble is formed around Wax, if this could be expanded then it is possible that the other affect of warp drive could be used to propel the ship using gravitational forces and the warp drive would be complete.

I haven't yet read your article, but I fear it explains a bit more than I'm getting at.

TL;DR: The time bubbles control time dilatation for the inhabitants of ship while creating a faster frame of reference for just the ship itself. Allowing the ship to appear faster while the passengers are within normal time. Imagine a large 'quick' bubble with a slightly smaller 'slow' bubble contained within the ship for the passengers.

The movement of the ship will be the tidal forces from the creation of push and pull bubbles. This would complete the requirements of a warp drive... provided that you can find a group of people like Wax that has the ability to create a large enough bubble and also get the opposite pull group with likewise the ability to create a bubble large enough to 'warp' a ship.

One thing to keep in mind is that it is logically necessary that the "speed up" or "slow down" caused by time bubbles is all in relation to the frame of reference of wherever the bubble is anchored. So if a time bubble is moving through space with the ship, that ship will be moving the same speed no matter how many or what kind of bubbles you put around it (that speed being 0 mph from the ship's frame of reference and something <c from any other frame of reference).

From what I know of physics. Nothing moves at 0mph. I kind of get what you are saying about frame of reference. However, my point is that if you slingshot from Earth and 'coast', you are traveling the speed of Earth + whatever speed or lost from the slingshot process. I mean, I might be sitting still on Earth, but Earth itself is traveling at tremendous speed across the galaxy EDIT: I meant solar system, but galaxy works too. If I'm at the weightless distance between the moon and Earth gravitational pull, staying 'still' I'm still traveling at the relative velocity of Earth.

The velocity of a ship shouldn't matter. The frame of reference problem could also be sorted by the people on the ship in 'normal' time. The ship being in a 'quick' time would see that its reference is 'faster' than those in the ship and therefore will travel further than its normal velocity should allow.

What I'm getting at is that its velocity might be the same given its own frame of reference, but given the time, it will be able to travel further than its normal velocity would allow. So the from the frame of reference outside the ship, its velocity from their point of view is that the ship is traveling at an extremely high speed.

Since, time is being manipulated, the ship would be able to travel faster than the speed of light, since its velocity in its own frame of reference is far below the speed of light, but to everyone else outside the bubble. Well, might as well be magic.

I haven't seen these two yet. Could you link the interview, please?

Sorry bro, I play fast and loose. The first quote is from the forum Q/A he did a few weeks ago. The second is from a question asked(?), a question was asked to Brandon(?) or it was theorized that a mistborn would be 'fly' by keeping two or more coins and pulling and pushing against them at equal strengths. It would be the elite form of flying that Vin and Elend did in the first Mistborn trilogy. I believe Brandon mentioned that it would take an extremely skilled Mistborn and would be incredibly dangerous and tiring and not worth the effort.

Likewise, I'm just playing fun. Given the fictional state of the story, most likely it would be something entirely made up that makes sense within the frame of the story, but not something that we'd entirely be able to surmise by guessing at the mechanics. I mean, Brandon can create new mechanics entirely in order to allow the spaceship to travel at faster than light. By restricting entirely to quotes, yes I do understand, but what I mean is that it is all in fun, I don't want to spend half a day on something that doesn't matter. No offense to those that do. If that is your thing, then go have at it. I just like throwing things at a wall and see if they stick.

Yeah, where they anchor is a good question. Given their strongly Cogntive nature so far, I would hazard that they anchor to whatever the caster thinks of as the ground/un-moving. Frame of reference is fun, as I found to my dismay.

If I remember correctly, a question was asked to Brandon whether if someone created a bubble on a moving train, if the bubble would anchor to the ground or to the train. Brandon's answer was to the train. If 'caster' is on a spaceship, then the anchor would be the ship.

Edited November 20, 2012 by Jacob Santos

[Kurkistan]

I think the problem is that there are two problems, you are applying one aspect to both as a solution and I'm not. The problem and solution to actually moving the ship is outside the scope of the time dilatation problem, which is what I'm giving an solution to.

The reference to creation of a warp drive using both bubbles is an reference to the gravitational well that is itself a sort of bubble. In the wikipedia article on warp drives, the graphic shown is what I was referring to. It was an one-off in a sort of attempt to compound and give an alternative to the original theory.

Well, I guess I see your point. The bubbles merely manipulate time and not space itself, therefore it couldn't move a ship like a warp drive could. However, thinking about Alloy of Law, a bubble is formed around Wax, if this could be expanded then it is possible that the other affect of warp drive could be used to propel the ship using gravitational forces and the warp drive would be complete.

I haven't yet read your article, but I fear it explains a bit more than I'm getting at.

TL;DR: The time bubbles control time dilatation for the inhabitants of ship while creating a faster frame of reference for just the ship itself. Allowing the ship to appear faster while the passengers are within normal time. Imagine a large 'quick' bubble with a slightly smaller 'slow' bubble contained within the ship for the passengers.

The movement of the ship will be the tidal forces from the creation of push and pull bubbles. This would complete the requirements of a warp drive... provided that you can find a group of people like Wax that has the ability to create a large enough bubble and also get the opposite pull group with likewise the ability to create a bubble large enough to 'warp' a ship.

It may be the case that time bubbles have some interesting spatial effects, what with the whole space-time thing, so a warp drive for propulsion may be in the future. Don't give up hope!

From what I know of physics. Nothing moves at 0mph. I kind of get what you are saying about frame of reference. However, my point is that if you slingshot from Earth and 'coast', you are traveling the speed of Earth + whatever speed or lost from the slingshot process. I mean, I might be sitting still on Earth, but Earth itself is traveling at tremendous speed across the galaxy EDIT: I meant solar system, but galaxy works too. If I'm at the weightless distance between the moon and Earth gravitational pull, staying 'still' I'm still traveling at the relative velocity of Earth.

The velocity of a ship shouldn't matter. The frame of reference problem could also be sorted by the people on the ship in 'normal' time. The ship being in a 'quick' time would see that its reference is 'faster' than those in the ship and therefore will travel further than its normal velocity should allow.

What I'm getting at is that its velocity might be the same given its own frame of reference, but given the time, it will be able to travel further than its normal velocity would allow. So the from the frame of reference outside the ship, its velocity from their point of view is that the ship is traveling at an extremely high speed.

Since, time is being manipulated, the ship would be able to travel faster than the speed of light, since its velocity in its own frame of reference is far below the speed of light, but to everyone else outside the bubble. Well, might as well be magic.

The whole "nothing goes 0mph" thing is the problem, actually. You need some frame of reference before you can start throwing around things going faster just because they experience time differently. Velocity is distance over time, true, but that doesn't work by itself when time bubbles come into play.

As I discussed in the specific post I linked to a bit farther down, an object's "speed up" is necessarily a function of how fast its frame of reference is going. If the object is going c relative to the bubble, then it may well be able to travel at 20c for a brief moment before it exits the bubble. If, however, the bubble is moving with the object, then the object is not actually traveling as far as the time bubble is concerned, and so does not accelerate in any frame of reference, leaving us with an effective maximum speed of c again.

The example I used to illustrate this was two objects motionless relative to each other in space. From one perspective, where the objects are motionless, a bubble put up around one of the objects shouldn't affect their relative position at all. But from a perspective where each object is "moving" at 1mph, a bubble around one of them will most definitely affect their relative position. Therefore, frame of reference is key for calculations of how much farther an object moves while under the effect of a time bubble than it would normally, and objects which are stationary relative to the bubble do not care either way.

Sorry bro, I play fast and loose. The first quote is from the forum Q/A he did a few weeks ago. The second is from a question asked(?), a question was asked to Brandon(?) or it was theorized that a mistborn would be 'fly' by keeping two or more coins and pulling and pushing against them at equal strengths. It would be the elite form of flying that Vin and Elend did in the first Mistborn trilogy. I believe Brandon mentioned that it would take an extremely skilled Mistborn and would be incredibly dangerous and tiring and not worth the effort.

I do not recall the quote for the first one, and cannot find it in the Q&A. Could you please pull the link?

As for the second: ah. I misunderstood you there. You could also use Iron Feruchemists for infinite free energy much more easily, btw.

Likewise, I'm just playing fun. Given the fictional state of the story, most likely it would be something entirely made up that makes sense within the frame of the story, but not something that we'd entirely be able to surmise by guessing at the mechanics. I mean, Brandon can create new mechanics entirely in order to allow the spaceship to travel at faster than light. By restricting entirely to quotes, yes I do understand, but what I mean is that it is all in fun, I don't want to spend half a day on something that doesn't matter. No offense to those that do. If that is your thing, then go have at it. I just like throwing things at a wall and see if they stick.

Fair enough. The more theories the merrier. Brandon has said that FTL is "built into [allomancy and feruchemy]", though, so I doubt that he'll just pull something out of thin air to explain it away when the day comes.

If I remember correctly, a question was asked to Brandon whether if someone created a bubble on a moving train, if the bubble would anchor to the ground or to the train. Brandon's answer was to the train. If 'caster' is on a spaceship, then the anchor would be the ship.

Brandon's answer was most definitely the ground, actually. It might be different in space, without the vehicle having to compete with a planet for the bubble's attention, but it's not a sure thing.

Edited November 20, 2012 by Kurkistan