How to destroy (or disrupt) a planet with Allomancy and Feruchemy in 3 easy steps - an idea for Era 4 planet busters and other such weaponry

[Ixthos]

Step 1: Construct a device that can store, compound, and tap weight. Alternatively, be someone who can store, compound, and tap weight. For this one might require a lot of metal.

Step 2: Place device on desired planet - this may involve simply firing this at the target

Step 3: Switch it on. It will store some of its weight, compound it, and then tap it to increase its mass, and can continue to store portions of this while tapping the bulk of the mass. If enough energy can be stored, one of three scenarios will be produced

1. The mass that can be tapped is sufficient for a black hole to be produced, and is able to sustain this state, thus consuming the planet, or
2. The mass that can be tapped is sufficient for a black hole to be produced, but not sustained, resulting in a massive explosion as the black hole evaporates, depending on how much mass was produced, or
3. The mass that can be tapped is not sufficient for a black hole to be produced, but it is enough to cause the object to crash through the body's surface. In this case, don't place the device on the planet, but instead use it at specific locations in space with your unmanned weapon and activated it to subtly affect the local tectonics or tides, or possibly even disrupt the planet's orbit.

Of course, to achieve any of these, the device might need to be significantly massive to both store, compound, and tap the right amount of weight / mass, so it might be a bit expensive to produce. But then, if you are blowing up a planet, maybe that's a good thing.

 

Can anyone see any flaws in this, and what other methods could be used to destroy or damage a planet?

Edited December 8, 2020 by Ixthos
spelling mistakes fixed

[Shard of Reading]

Before I say anything, keep in mind I know almost nothing about the science of this.

But, it seems to me that it would be able to disrupt a planet without creating a black hole. If you got enough weight, you could probably shift the way the weight is distributed on the planet and mess with it's orbit. Also this would take a life time and you would have to know that you want to do this decades in advance.

[Ixthos]

Just now, Ookla the Bored said:

Before I say anything, keep in mind I know almost nothing about the science of this.

But, it seems to me that it would be able to disrupt a planet without creating a black hole. If you got enough weight, you could probably shift the way the weight is distributed on the planet and mess with it's orbit. Also this would take a life time and you would have to know that you want to do this decades in advance.

I did cover that in Step three point three, but yes, you don't need to form a black hole to destroy or disrupt a planet :-) As with a lot of planetary level things one definitely needs to do the maths before doing anything involving the movement of planets and stars.

[Karger]

I think by far the simplest method would be a variant of option three.  Since momentum is conserved place a weight that stores its mass in a stable orbit.  When you want to trigger it switch to tapping and the thing's mass will increase while its orbital speed collapses allowing it to fall to the earth as a meteor.  I honest think this is going to be the era three scadrian equivalent of a nuke.  It is simple coast effective and requires almost no maintenance.  Additionally you can adjust the tapping for different amounts of damage or damaging different areas.

The other method I thought up was original conceived for teraforming but compounding heat to boil an ocean would make a fun visual.

[Faceless Mist-Wraith]

One flaw is that you can't store/tap mass, only weight. That would mean scenarios 1 & 2 would't work.

[danex]

12 hours ago, Faceless Mist-Wraith said:

One flaw is that you can't store/tap mass, only weight. That would mean scenarios 1 & 2 would't work.

Really? I thought it was mass. 
Weight is how much the planet pulls on you, if Wax increased the pull of the planet on himself when he tapped iron, it would alter his trajectory in mid-air. I’m pretty sure it mentions the exact opposite happening; he taps iron mid-steelpush but he doesn’t feel the effects. Because all objects fall at the same rate, regardless of mass. (Disregarding air resistance)

We see Sazed fill an ironmind to slowly lower himself down a cliff, but I think that was just because of air resistance. He had so little mass that the air resistance was enough to slow him. Like a feather.