Stormlight - Chemistry, Physics, or Simply Magic?

[Dawnbearer]

Stormlight is a pristine, glowing, mist-like, mysterious source of essentially God-given energy.                                      Image by ShardShaper
Maybe it is just energy. Or is it matter?

Is common Stormlight gaseous? If so, what are its melting and boiling points? Maybe the frost that occurs when large amounts of Stormlight are used has to do with chemical properties--maybe it deposes onto clothing as it is released from the body. The frost doesn't have to be ice.
Or perhaps Stormlight is not an element but a compound containing hydrogen and oxygen, which when used for Surgebinding reacts, somehow eliminating heat energy and producing water (H20) as a byproduct which is then frozen?
Well what if those on Roshar don't breathe oxygen...but rather the low-concentration, less compressed Stormlight in the air? This would explain why one doesn't necessarily need to breathe when infused.

Of course Stormlight could well be energy--this would better explain why gemstones (and other things, of course, but especially gemstones) can be infused by it. Maybe it is an odd sort of energy that consumes heat when doing work rather than releasing it like most energy.

Then again I wouldn't be surprised if gaseous, liquid, solid, or even plasma states of Stormlight were all involved in Roshar's magic system (plasma especially would be somewhat understandable). Besides, it is curious to me that condensation appears on a recently summoned shardblade and that frost forms as Stormlight is surged. Yet it doesn't even have to be baryonic matter (the familiar matter of the Universe - neutrons, protons, electrons). While Scandrial's magic system--among others--indicates that baryonic matter is probably present in the Cosmere, there is no stopping the idea of unimagined and unobserved-in-real-world matter exists in such a fictional universe.

Which--come to think of it--is probably the exact nature of Stormlight. Not familiar energy, not typical matter, but something entirely different.

 

I really don't know. I think it's worth some thought, and it would be a curious topic when it comes to converting investiture, soulcasting, lashings, etc. Maybe I'll have an update on this. Liquid Stormlight, at least, would be rather intriguing. I also think the theory that Rosharians breathe Stormlight is noteworthy, or at least interesting. But I suppose it's most plausible that Stormlight is just something else entirely created by Honor to conduct and host Investiture.

Regardless, the idea of Stormlight as an element or compound is pretty cool.                                                          Sorry about the word vomit

[Bookish Ocelot]

This post is right up my nerdy alley.

So there are two things I'm seeing here. One is whether or not stormlight adheres to the traditional model of physics. The other is which state of matter it is.

The first one: Aside from being, you know, a magical substance, I don't see anything majorly odd. But that could just be me. If I had to guess, stormlight seems to be a point particle (volume but very very small mass) vaguely along the lines of a photon in that it is a packet of energy. Where it fits on the electromagnetic spectrum? Maybe in the ultraviolet to gamma radiation spectrum. Radiation (sometimes) causes things to glow in the presence of certain elements because of a fabulous thing called Cherenkov Radiation. Basically, the pretty glow occurs when the particles from the radiation move faster than they normally would in a given substance (like water in a reactor). If stormlight is a very high energy particle and therefore moves a wee bit faster through water vapor- boom, pretty glow. But how do you get the colors? Adding more or less energy can make it grow more or less blue.

The second one: Stormlight (to me) acts like a gas. It moves to fill a container (ish). It expands and diffuses. It can be cooled down to another state. Perhaps when blades are summoned, they are cold. Some things, like carbon monoxide (dry ice) go directly from solid to gas. This seems to be one of those. As for stormlight in the atmosphere, Brandon said something along the lines of "Roshar has a really high oxygen level, and that's why fire isn't used much."

But light isn't a gas. So one of these theories being true would invalidate the other. 

 

Anyone with a knowledge greater than what I have scraped off of wikipedia, please chime in. 

[Karger]

12 hours ago, Dawnbearer said:

Maybe it is just energy. Or is it matter?

It has mass.  That does not mean anything definitive but I though I would throw that out there.

12 hours ago, Dawnbearer said:

Is common Stormlight gaseous

As @BookishOcelot said it expands to fill volume which does indicate that it is gaseous.

12 hours ago, Dawnbearer said:

Well what if those on Roshar don't breathe oxygen...but rather the low-concentration, less compressed Stormlight in the air? This would explain why one doesn't necessarily need to breathe when infused.

They breath oxygen.

[Quantus]

In the case of Stormlight, we've been told specifically that it is a Gas.  Pure Investiture manifests in the Physical Realm as one of the three primary phases of matter (or you can have normal Objects or people be Invested, which is different).  Both Stormlight and the Mists of Scadrial are examples of gaseous Investiture, the Godmetals are Solids, and the magic waters of the shardpools are the liquid form (which is the most densely powerful).  FOr what it's worth he's also said that all the solids are metals as a general rule of the cosmere.  Phase changes between them are possible, but not by normal mechanical means (Looking for that WOB, Ill get back with the reference).

 

This WOB seems relevant to the topic at hand:

 

Quote

 

Questioner

When magic Invested in an object-- Does the Investiture act like electrons when it reacts with the matter?

Brandon Sanderson

Not quite, but I could see that metaphor working to explain it. But it's not quite there. The Investiture kind of-- If you had a piece of Invested material from the cosmere here, you would not be able to measure the Investiture in any way. It occupies a space that doesn't exist in our universe, if that makes sense. But in the cosmere you could measure it scientifically with an instrument that wouldn't do anything here, like trying to measure a dimension that we can't perceive, something like that. The electron metaphor is a decent one, but it's not exactly how I'm imagining it.

Skyward San Diego signing (Nov. 7, 2018)

 

 

 

 

[+Oltux72]

11 hours ago, BookishOcelot said:

Radiation (sometimes) causes things to glow in the presence of certain elements because of a fabulous thing called Cherenkov Radiation. Basically, the pretty glow occurs when the particles from the radiation move faster than they normally would in a given substance (like water in a reactor). If stormlight is a very high energy particle and therefore moves a wee bit faster through water vapor- boom, pretty glow. But how do you get the colors? Adding more or less energy can make it grow more or less blue.

If that were the case Stormlight would have to decay, as it loses energy. Also, the physical form of breath also shines light, as do Aons. It looks like Investiture in general does something to the structure of the universe which creates light.

11 hours ago, BookishOcelot said:

The second one: Stormlight (to me) acts like a gas. It moves to fill a container (ish). It expands and diffuses. It can be cooled down to another state. Perhaps when blades are summoned, they are cold. Some things, like carbon monoxide (dry ice) go directly from solid to gas. This seems to be one of those. As for stormlight in the atmosphere, Brandon said something along the lines of "Roshar has a really high oxygen level, and that's why fire isn't used much."

An extreme loss of Stormlight also causes cold. Szeth at one point formed frost. It would be odd for the blades to be cold for a different reason.

[Quantus]

 

28 minutes ago, Oltux72 said:

An extreme loss of Stormlight also causes cold. Szeth at one point formed frost. It would be odd for the blades to be cold for a different reason.

WOB confirms that this is not an effect of stormlight itself, it's a byproduct of a shardblade condensing through a vapor phase to solid:

 

Quote

 

Questioner

Why does Stormlight make things cold?

Brandon Sanderson

It’s not the Stormlight, it’s condensation because something is going directly from a gas into a solid. The coldness is caused by that, it’s not necessarily that the Stormlight is making things cold, but that the Shardblade is condensing.

Boskone 54 (Feb. 17, 2017)

 

 

[+Oltux72]

1 hour ago, Quantus said:

 

WOB confirms that this is not an effect of stormlight itself, it's a byproduct of a shardblade condensing through a vapor phase to solid:

 

 

The problem with that is that condensation makes things warmer, not colder.

[Bookish Ocelot]

3 hours ago, Oltux72 said:

If that were the case Stormlight would have to decay, as it loses energy. Also, the physical form of breath also shines light, as do Aons. It looks like Investiture in general does something to the structure of the universe which creates light.

An extreme loss of Stormlight also causes cold. Szeth at one point formed frost. It would be odd for the blades to be cold for a different reason.

The stormlight does decay, I think . After a certain point, there is no energy left for surgebindung and the glowing stops at that point. Like a soulcaster, for example. Maybe that makes the compound stable, then the highstorms renergize it? 

Perhaps all investiture glows as it is related to radiation/the electromagnetic spectrum. 

[Quantus]

2 hours ago, Oltux72 said:

The problem with that is that condensation makes things warmer, not colder.

When you take a volume of gas, in this case Stormlight, and condense it to a solid form, it takes up substantially less volume than it did in it's gaseous form. This causes a vacuum effect on the surroundings, reducing the pressure of the air which in turn is forced to draw heat from it's surroundings to expand back out to fill that evacuated volume.

[Dawnbearer]

8 hours ago, Quantus said:

 

WOB confirms that this is not an effect of stormlight itself, it's a byproduct of a shardblade condensing through a vapor phase to solid:

 

 

Yes, this makes sense. However, this does not explain why Surgebinding causes frost to form, especially since the compression of Stormight is reduced when it leaves the body. Then again, when used, is it released? Or is it consumed somehow? Surely when a Lashing is performed Light is infused into an object, but even then does the object slowly release it or is it used up by the object? So I really don't know if we should be asking why frost forms when mass amounts of Stormlight are released or when they are consumed. Further even, does the Stormlight stick with the Investiture when used, or do they go their separate ways?

I happily accept that Stormlight is a physical, chemical, baryonic element or compond. But I still think the specific qualities of it (such as; element or molecule? Are solids and liquids present at all in Roshar (s and l of Stormlight, not Investiture alone)? Could Stormlight become a superfluid?) are very broad, but perhaps worth more consideration. If there is something that I don't understand, it's how gemstones can be infused with a gas.

The glow probably does radiate from all Investiture (except for solids...but if all solid investiture is a transition or God metal, maybe glow is essentially substituted by sheen. That makes sense fictionally, but not logically or scientifically. I don't know, someone ask Preservation), so then do things simply glow at the presence of Investiture, or do things infused with Investiture glow? If it's the former, then maybe the Stormlight particles remain in the air, with the Investiture as energy stored in the gemstone like electricity in a Lithium battery. Then, when the 'Stormlight' is inhaled, the Investiture meets the Stormlight, becoming the Stormlight we all know and love, to meet the needs of the Physical Realm. This would make sense, as you can't just store matter within other matter...or I guess maybe you could in the Cosmere.
(Hmm, Light fills the empty space between gemstone molecules...? Sounds reasonable for Sci-fi. This would argue for the fact that things hosting Investiture for the sake of a magic system simply radiate light.) Also why do cut gemstones in turn hold Light for longer?

I don't think Stormlight decays or is radiocative, but I suppose it could make sense as most elements with large atomic numbers are radioactive, and Stormlight would have to have an atomic number greater than 118, as all those have already been discovered (unless it is not an element, but rather a compound). So it could be, but Light runs out because the body is far too porous, and no gemstone could be perfect. So I say Light is either lost or used, never really decaying. Of course I could always be wrong.

Another interesting thing about this is that gemstones seem to be the only baryonic matter that cannot be soulcast. Why is this true? Is it also true for Stormlight? I would think so. Then again, if Stormlight--as I've theorized--is present without Investiture, like it might be in gemstones, it may be borderline useless as even a soulcast material with no Investiture.

Wow, this topic is a lot more broad than I anticipated. My guess is Stormlight is an element (or maybe compound) that hosts Investiture as part of Honor's magic system. Either it can be present without Investiture or it is a very flexible (not physically, rather behaviourally) particle that can weave between the molecules of a gemstone OR can be present Spiritually/Cognitively in the Physical realm.

I think that's all I have for now...gah, thought overload.

[Bookish Ocelot]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

11

1 hour ago, Dawnbearer said:

Yes, this makes sense. However, this does not explain why Surgebinding causes frost to form, especially since the compression of Stormight is reduced when it leaves the body. Then again, when used, is it released? Or is it consumed somehow? Surely when a Lashing is performed Light is infused into an object, but even then does the object slowly release it or is it used up by the object? So I really don't know if we should be asking why frost forms when mass amounts of Stormlight are released or when they are consumed. Further even, does the Stormlight stick with the Investiture when used, or do they go their separate ways?

I happily accept that Stormlight is a physical, chemical, baryonic element or compond. But I still think the specific qualities of it (such as; element or molecule? Are solids and liquids present at all in Roshar (s and l of Stormlight, not Investiture alone)? Could Stormlight become a superfluid?) are very broad, but perhaps worth more consideration. If there is something that I don't understand, it's how gemstones can be infused with a gas.

The glow probably does radiate from all Investiture (except for solids...but if all solid investiture is a transition or God metal, maybe glow is essentially substituted by sheen. That makes sense fictionally, but not logically or scientifically. I don't know, someone ask Preservation), so then do things simply glow at the presence of Investiture, or do things infused with Investiture glow? If it's the former, then maybe the Stormlight particles remain in the air, with the Investiture as energy stored in the gemstone like electricity in a Lithium battery. Then, when the 'Stormlight' is inhaled, the Investiture meets the Stormlight, becoming the Stormlight we all know and love, to meet the needs of the Physical Realm. This would make sense, as you can't just store matter within other matter...or I guess maybe you could in the Cosmere.
(Hmm, Light fills the empty space between gemstone molecules...? Sounds reasonable for Sci-fi. This would argue for the fact that things hosting Investiture for the sake of a magic system simply radiate light.) Also why do cut gemstones in turn hold Light for longer?

I don't think Stormlight decays or is radiocative, but I suppose it could make sense as most elements with large atomic numbers are radioactive, and Stormlight would have to have an atomic number greater than 118, as all those have already been discovered (unless it is not an element, but rather a compound). So it could be, but Light runs out because the body is far too porous, and no gemstone could be perfect. So I say Light is either lost or used, never really decaying. Of course I could always be wrong.

Another interesting thing about this is that gemstones seem to be the only baryonic matter that cannot be soulcast. Why is this true? Is it also true for Stormlight? I would think so. Then again, if Stormlight--as I've theorized--is present without Investiture, like it might be in gemstones, it may be borderline useless as even a soulcast material with no Investiture.

Wow, this topic is a lot more broad than I anticipated. My guess is Stormlight is an element (or maybe compound) that hosts Investiture as part of Honor's magic system. Either it can be present without Investiture or it is a very flexible (not physically, rather behaviourally) particle that can weave between the molecules of a gemstone OR can be present Spiritually/Cognitively in the Physical realm.

I think that's all I have for now...gah, thought overload.

 

So my radioactive/electromagnetism glowy theory really only works if stormlight is an element. Molecules (as I understand them) don't decay radioactively. Again, please feel free to correct me. As for elements, it seems like it would fit in group seven or eight. (where the gases are). Maybe there's another row on the periodic table, and that's where stormlight fits in. It appears to be unreactive, which would put it in group eight. However, most scientists agree that elements >118 are too heavy to exist, but there have been attempts to make them. There is also a theory that there is a set of elements around ~140 that are stable enough to exist for a few minutes. They would be very heavy and denser than air, which would make them sink. However, that is with Earth's temperature, pressure, and composition. 

Did we ever get it confirmed that the body was too porous? Or it could be that gems stabilize it and human bodies allow it to decay naturally. (like an aqueous solution)

Gemstones can be soulcast, they just would not be able to hold stormlight.

 

[Jofwu]

FYI, I'm moving this to the Stormlight Archive forum.

[Dawnbearer]

14 minutes ago, BookishOcelot said:

Did we ever get it confirmed that the body was too porous? Or it could be that gems stabilize it and human bodies allow it to decay naturally. (like an aqueous solution)

Yes, I remember a specific line. I'll look it up...

Aha. The Way of Kings, Prologue, page 24 - Szeth-son-son-Vallano, "Holding his breath, he clung to the Stormlight. He could still feel it leaking out. Stormlight could be held for only a short time, a few minutes at most. It leaked away, the human body too porous a container. He had heard that the Voidbringers could hold it in perfectly. But, then, did they even exist? His punishment declared that they didn't. His honor demanded that they did."

Yeah, so to be fair I really doubt it decays, but I do like the way you all think.

I really don't know what to say about the placement on the Periodic Table. It honestly seems more probable that it is some sort of molecule. Unless there is an element that doesn't exist in the Cosmere, and is replaced by Stormlight. Probably not an organic element. Maybe something in group 18? Those are mostly unreactive gasses, right? Maybe neon or something. I don't know.

I doubt Investiture is in the electromagnetic spectrum, because waves of Investiture just doesn't sound right. It's more of an essence. Or it could be a particle...some sort of mutant electron that only holds significance in the Cosmere. But no, I doubt that. I'll bet Investiture is either beyond baryonic consideration or simply...magic. This is a 'magic system' after all.

[Bookish Ocelot]

It's possible the human body porousness is just an analogy/explanation given because it is not fully understood. (We here on earth were convinced a giant beetle pulled the sun across the sky for a while...)

If it's a molecule, how do you explain stormlight not reacting with anything? It also would likely be heavier than air in that case, so how does it float? A lot of elements are used in the human body - Hydrogen, Oxygen, Carbon, Nitrogen, Sodium, Calcium, Iron, Magnesium, Boron, etc. (Group 8B (the one I referred to) and group 18 are the same thing)

Electromagnetic spectrum probably doesn't work, but it would be a convenient way to explain the glowing and energy. Electron orbits also go in waves. 

Another unreasonable but maybe not idea: Instead of fission (LAAAME) what about fusion? It glows. It makes energy. It is also very hot but I will ignore that. We haven't seen helium yet in the books and it's not unreasonable to think that helium or neon have been replaced. Everybody buckle up, because this is where it gets weird. Neon and helium (and all noble gases) glow in the presence of heat and pressure as they become ionized. This is how electric signs work. If you heat metals in a flame, they change colour. That is the same principal. If you take my magical nonexistant fusion, things get hot. Then, the stormlight is burned (literally), ionizing it and making that sweet glow. You also get a bunch of heat left over, but I'm assuming radiant bodies/gemstones have some way to compensate for it. Some gems like topaz and sapphire have high(er) specific heat. 

 

I realize that the previous paragraph ignores a lot of science, but we're talking about flying people here.

[Calderis]

Stormlight is gaseous physical realm state of Investiture. 

Quote

Questioner

I know that there's three sorts of forms that magic presents itself in, the liquid and the solid and air. What would Breath be?

Brandon Sanderson

Breath is definitely like mist, it is in the form of the air.

Questioner

And is Stormlight the same?

Brandon Sanderson

Stormlight is the same.

Words of Radiance Philadelphia signing (March 21, 2014)

Investiture is a third state. Matter/energy/Investiture. As such its functioning under slightly different rules than you'd expect. We've seen all three forms of one type of Investiture exist in very similar circumstance. 

Mistborn spoilers 

Spoiler

Kaimipono

Allomancy is fueled by Preservation's body? How exactly does that work? And how does that interact with Atium—it's fueled by both gods' bodies?

Brandon Sanderson

The powers of Ruin and Preservation are Shards of Adonalsium, pieces of the power of creation itself. Allomancy, Hemalurgy, Feruchemy are manifestations of this power in mortal form, the ability to touch the powers of creation and use them. These metallic powers are how people's physical forms interpret the use of the Shard, though it's not the only possible way they could be interpreted or used. It's what the genetics and Realmatic interactions of Scadrial allow for, and has to do with the Spiritual, the Cognitive, and the Physical Realms.

Condensed 'essence' of these godly powers can act as super-fuel for Allomancy, Feruchemy, or really any of the powers. The form of that super fuel is important. In liquid form it's most potent, in gas form it's able to fuel Allomancy as if working as a metal. In physical form it is rigid and does one specific thing. In the case of atium, it allows sight into the future. In the case of concentrated Preservation, it gives one a permanent connection to the mists and the powers of creation. (I.e., it makes them an Allomancer.)

So when a person is burning metals, they aren't using Preservation's body as a fuel so to speak—though they are tapping into the powers of creation just slightly. When Vin burns the mists, however, she'd doing just that—using the essence of Preservation, the Shard of Adonalsium itself—to fuel Allomancy. Doing this, however, rips 'troughs' through her body. It's like forcing far too much pressure through a very small, fragile hose. That much power eventually vaporizes the corporeal host, which is acting as the block and forcing the power into a single type of conduit (Allomancy) and frees it to be more expansive.

Hero of Ages Q&A - Time Waster's Guide (Oct. 15, 2008)

So stormlight isn't going to have a temperature point at which it condenses to liquid. It's not actually matter. It's Investiture behaving like matter. 

A liquid for of it would be super concentrated, more so than a solid one. 

Investiture has its own rules. Energy and matter don't behave the same ways, and neither does it. 

[+Oltux72]

17 hours ago, Quantus said:

When you take a volume of gas, in this case Stormlight, and condense it to a solid form, it takes up substantially less volume than it did in it's gaseous form. This causes a vacuum effect on the surroundings, reducing the pressure of the air which in turn is forced to draw heat from it's surroundings to expand back out to fill that evacuated volume.

Theoretically true. However, you need to bring the Stormlight that turns into the blade together. That means that the same amount of heat is released by that work.
In addition, it does not take Stormlight to summon a blade. That was the whole point that led to the discovery that shard blades are not fabrials. They work if their gem stones are dun. Furthermore, they need to displace the air that occupied the volume they now inhabit. That means that they compress air. The air would warm up from that.

[Dawnbearer]

On 10/29/2019 at 8:54 PM, Calderis said:

So stormlight isn't going to have a temperature point at which it condenses to liquid. It's not actually matter. It's Investiture behaving like matter. 

A liquid for of it would be super concentrated, more so than a solid one. 

Investiture has its own rules. Energy and matter don't behave the same ways, and neither does it. 

I really really appreciate this post, thank you for the input! I feel like this makes the most sense. Investiture may be non-baryonic matter or some sort of non-traditional energy, but it is most likely a third group of entity. And any liquid form, as you have said, would not be condensed Stormlight gas, but more accurately Investiture simply in the form of liquid.

On 10/29/2019 at 7:28 PM, BookishOcelot said:

(Group 8B (the one I referred to) and group 18 are the same thing)

I may be wrong, but I'm fairly certain that group 8B and 18 are not the same--18 = 8A, 8 = 8B
...It's an odd system. Here;

 1        2       3       4       5        6       7        8       9      10      11      12     13     14     15     16      17     18
1A     2A     3B     4B     5B     6B     7B     8B     8B     8B     1B     2B     3A     4A     5A     6A     7A     8A

The Transition Metals are all in B groups. I don't know why it's made that way.

Thank you for your contribution, I enjoyed geeking out with you on this!

On 10/30/2019 at 5:22 AM, Oltux72 said:

Theoretically true. However, you need to bring the Stormlight that turns into the blade together. That means that the same amount of heat is released by that work.
In addition, it does not take Stormlight to summon a blade. That was the whole point that led to the discovery that shard blades are not fabrials. They work if their gem stones are dun. Furthermore, they need to displace the air that occupied the volume they now inhabit. That means that they compress air. The air would warm up from that.

Yeah, okay. This is the last thing I don't have a solid answer for. I think maybe the reason condensation appears on shardblades is correlated to frost forming on clothing. Any ideas, sharders?

[Bookish Ocelot]

Sorry, meant 8A. brain fried

 

 

[Dawnbearer]

In hindsight, I realize that the concept of Stormlight probably isn't all that different from, per say, Atium. They both are pure forms of Investiture fueled by the magic system of a Shard (or two Shards), one as a gas and one as a solid. Yes, I'm truly satisfied with the conclusion that Investiture--and the forms it takes--is a unique type of concept/aspect of the universe unlike matter or energy.

Very cool
I'll probably be keeping this in mind as I continue to explore more Shard's magic systems.

[Karger]

On 10/29/2019 at 9:37 PM, BookishOcelot said:

So my radioactive/electromagnetism glowy theory really only works if stormlight is an element. Molecules (as I understand them) don't decay radioactively

The individual atoms in the molecule do.

[BobyVass]

Hello there. 

As I read this thread, I see nothing wrong with stormlight being some kind of a high energy particle. Considering the law of total internal reflection, it can be stored in gemstones, decaying over time. Considering Roshar's gravity is ~0.7g, it's atmosphere shouldn't be as dense as Earth's. So the refraction angle between air and the gemstone will be bigger, therefore the angle of total internal reflection would also be bigger. So saving energy in gemstones on roshar is easyer than on Earth. 

Now on the glow. It may be working on a principle, similar to the way the ruby lasers work. The high density of high energy particles in the gemstone would provide enough energy to archieve population inversion in the gem. So the stone may become a little, not very efficient optical resonators. So the energy stored in the gem is not released entirely as light. And this does make sense because flying for a couple of minutes must cost a lot more energy than a candle-like light source in a week.
Maybe the Cherenkov Radiation mentioned earlier can do the same thing, but I am not one who knows a lot about it.

As for stormlight as a liquid, photons can be considered as a liquid in some cases. But I prefer not to bother with this too much because this may lead to major book spoilers for me (I have read only TWoK, WoR, ED)

If there is someone more competent than me who can do the math and say certainly if this is possible, I will be glad to hear.

Edited April 30, 2020 by BobyVass

[Dawnbearer]

3 hours ago, BobyVass said:

I see nothing wrong with stormlight being some kind of a high energy particle.

Awesomesauce, this is all perfectly plausible and it's always fun to geek out  But I personally think that Calderis is right in saying that Stormlight is Honor's Investiture manifested in the physical realm, so it isn't actually matter or energy. Investiture is it's own essence.

[Karger]

3 hours ago, BobyVass said:

Considering Roshar's gravity is ~0.7g, it's atmosphere shouldn't be as dense as Earth's

Its atmosphere is actually much denser then earth's.

3 hours ago, BobyVass said:

And this does make sense because flying for a couple of minutes must cost a lot more energy than a candle-like light source in a week.

We actually know that perfect gemstones glow indefinably and have a WoB indicating that the light is just a side effect and in fact the energy for the illumination comes from relmatics not the stormlight itself. 

[Bookish Ocelot]

12 hours ago, Karger said:

Its atmosphere is actually much denser then earth's.

We actually know that perfect gemstones glow indefinably and have a WoB indicating that the light is just a side effect and in fact the energy for the illumination comes from relmatics not the stormlight itself. 

Can you link the WoB? 

As for the Cherenkov Radiation, the amount of radiation you would need to get that kind of glow would kill you, or at the very least give you radiation poison. Unless Rosharans are all somehow resistant to ionizing radiation. 

 

 

 

 

2

On 11/3/2019 at 0:37 AM, Dawnbearer said:

Yeah, okay. This is the last thing I don't have a solid answer for. I think maybe the reason condensation appears on shardblades is correlated to frost forming on clothing. Any ideas, sharders?

Perhaps the heat from the compressed air is used to form the blade? If the blades automatically pull from the surrounding air's heat, they could (in theory) draw enough out to form frost. 

[Honorless]

This WoB seemed relevant:

(Mistborn spoilers)

Spoiler

Ironeyes

So harmonium, we have a working theory that the reason it's so volatile is because some of the subatomic particles are associated with Ruin and some of them are [of?] Preservation. Is that true?

Brandon Sanderson

Yeah, that's basically what's going on is that it's creating a very unstable metal. Now, it is in the nature of the Cosmere not a compound but an element. But, you could call it a subatomic particle sure. It's very volatile because it is in nature spiritually in contrast with itself. And so though it is a single element rather than a compound, the spiritual nature is not happy as it is, and you can set up in the physical realm, through reactivity things that would just rip it apart and really your energy is not, your energy in that is actually pulling from the Spiritual realm, and so that's why it can be so much more explosive than even the chemistry would account for.

Ironeyes

So it's not that the subatomic particles are invested, it's that they have a spiritual identity which causes them to...

Brandon Sanderson

Yes.

Ironeyes

So then it's not creating an oxide because after the spiritual energy goes away from the explosion[unintelligible] metal, right?

Brandon Sanderson

Right, and...

Ironeyes

So you can't find harmonium oxide in the water afterwards.

Brandon Sanderson

Right right right right. Because it's not, it's, yeah.  But you might be able to find something else, which is really relevant to the cosmere. And to Scadrial.

Ironeyes

So the core elements, the core particles, having extra repulsion causes them to have a nuclear potential.

Brandon Sanderson

I would not call it nuclear because it's not the same exact thing. But there is a cosmere equivalent, to... I mean, you could do nuclear power just the same in the cosmere, but since we have a third kind of state of matter, right, matter, energy, Investiture, you have a third axis that you know, you can release energy from matter, you can release investiture from matter, and things like that. So it's similar, but following its own rules that I have a little more... that are controlled by me, right. But are built on this idea. So once you add [unintelligible for a few syllables] that matter can now exist in this third state, you get all sorts of weird things, which one of the things that happens is, you can get an energy release in sort of the same way. A reaction, I'm not going to call it a nuclear reaction, but of the same vein.

Boskone 54 (Feb. 19, 2017)

So physical and chemical reactions are a thing that we can expect to see from magical substances, sort of