Feruchemical Steel: Physical or Temporal?

[Pechvarry]

I recently read the fight at the end of WoA, starring Sazed's awesome speed.  And I find myself thinking: Speed is weird.  I've never liked Quicksilver or The Flash because super speed with nothing else makes very little sense.

 

If it's physical: his muscles are performing differently?  Super high metabolism or something?  Under this model, forces enacted upon him should carry out at regular speed.  In other words, if he dropped off a building, he'd fall as fast as anyone else.  He should also be able to put Pewter to shame in the department of hitting very hard.

 

If it's temporal: The feruchemist tapping speed enters a slightly different time stream.  Presumably, the linked cognitive/spiritual aspects don't speed up with it, which is a wonderfully Cosmere way of saying "stop thinking about what happens when he interacts with things in a different time stream."  Under this model, if he were to drop off a building, he would fall faster than normal people.  

 

Care to enlighten me?

[Voidus]

Feruchemical abilities are split up realmatically, Physical, Spitirual and Cognitive unlike allomancies quadrants, Steel is Physical.

[Phantom Monstrosity]

Speed is granted by a pewter spike, so physical.

[Pechvarry]

None of that actually states how the physics of the ability works. I understand saying "physical" and "temporal" makes people think of allomantic divisions, but I only mean it in the sense of the English language.

How can one rationalize only being faster physically without severely distorting physics?

[skaa]

Yes, it is Physical, which is why I also have a problem with it. Nevermind the problems regarding the laws of Physics (that's always an issue w/ most magic systems, anyway, even the more "realistic" ones), what about the cognitive problems? We know that there is a Feruchemical trait called Mental Speed (stored in zinc), so Physical Speed and Mental Speed are inherently separate traits (at least on Scadrial). So how do Steelrunners prevent themselves from stumbling and crashing all over the place when running super fast? They shouldn't have the mental speed to prevent such accidents unless they were full Feruchemists and can tap Mental Speed from a Zincmind.

 

This wouldn't be an issue if steel Feruchemy was Temporal. Then it would just be like bendalloy/cadmium Allomancy. But no, there doesn't seem to be any Temporal Feruchemy (as Voidus pointed out).

 

I guess the only viable use of Steelminds w/o Zincminds, then, is to perform relatively safe activities at an increased speed. While sitting or standing. Perhaps with padded furniture. Or perhaps... to perform a super-fast punch that would knock down your opponent long enough for you to stand up and regain your balance (coz you'll probably stumble in the process).

 

So much for the moniker "Steelrunner" then, eh?

 

Edit: Well... I guess instinctive reflexes aren't really part of "mental speed" per se; it can be considered a Physical trait that is also sped up by Steel. So Steelrunners might not be as clumsy as I thought they'd be.

Edited May 14, 2013 by skaa

[Phantom Monstrosity]

Well, there's sufficient secondary abilities to hit some pretty high limits

http://www.reddit.com/r/Fantasy/comments/1ced7z/iamstilla_novelist_named_brandon_sanderson_ama/c9g12u8?context=3

1) How fast could a steel/steel Twinborn move?

Brandon:

1) You'd hit physical limits eventually. While the Metallurgic arts generally enhanced the body to deal with the powers granted, things like air resistance would hold you back--perhaps even kill you--if you weren't careful.

[Voidus]

Given that things like blood flow, metabolism, etc. obviously keep up when Steel is tapped I'd say you could probably think of it as having limited temporal effects, speeding up all those aspects, plus muscle speed. But then because it's limited we wouldn't necessarily see effects like gravitational falling being faster for someone tapping speed, although that might cause balance issues, since running involves a certain amount of letting gravity pull you down, your gait would be way off while tapping speed otherwise.

[happyman]

I think the instinctive argument is the best.

 

An awful lot of what we do as humans is instinctive and never reaches the conscious mind until essentially after the fact.  This includes a lot of purely physical things like walking, running, obstacle avoidance, etc.

 

I suspect that physical speed, like pewter, has necessary secondary powers which began to encroach into the cognitive, but only slightly.

[Pechvarry]

In order to run super fast (without messing with space-time), one requires much stronger muscles.  This means you don't actually have super speed.   You're just all around super.  The secondary powers would be overwhelming.

Edited May 14, 2013 by Pechvarry