F Iron and strength

[DoctaDajman]

F Iron is described as giving users the strength to function.   Weight is shown to be used to directly effect the world around the user.  How does the strength to function not turn into strength to effect the world around you as well?   If someone that weighs the same as a car were to fall to the ground and catch themselves then do a couple clapping push-ups wouldn't that same person be able to stand in front of a car moving towards them and catch it?   Someone who weighs in excess of 2000 lbs can do a normal squat but they still only have the extra strength to left over to add the same few hundred lbs to the bar on top of that squat?   How does the strength your muscles are able to produce increase proportionally for everything you do while it's effect outside of supporting yourself stays exactly the same but the world can crumble around you because your new weight is impacting everything you have done?   

I would suggest it is the same backwards.  Someone who is storing weight shouldn't be able to lift nearly as much as they would have before hand.

If you weigh 2000 lbs for a baseball throw how does that not effect the way that baseball travels or even feels in your hand?   

I know F Iron seems to break the most rules and has the most "because magic" feel to it but I am curious if there are some smart folks in the forums who can explain to me how someone who does 3 times their body weight in a squat normally can suddenly weight 10x their normal weight and suddenly their strength is only allowing them to squat 30% of their entire weight but they can squat to support themselves just fine.  

[Quantus]

The real answer is that the physics break down, much like the age-old question of Why dont bugs kill the (non-bulletproof) Flash.

The current explanation is that the Weight manipulation is some sort of Higgs field manipulation, not literal mass.  For me it helps to think of it as a skin-level field effect that changes how the Feruchemist interacts with their surrounding reality without actually modifying anything inside that field.  The line between Internal Effects and External ones is pretty fundamental to a lot of cosmere effects.  

[StanLemon]

The other answer is that strength is more complicated than that. Just because you have the strength to move doesn't mean it translates to being able to lift more are put more force into a movement. Take people that weigh 400 lbs for example, their body is constantly exerting the strength to move that much weight but no one would say they are particularly strong. In fact they would often be considered physically weaker than the average person. The way the magic works I've mostly assumed any added strength is only just enough to counterbalance the increased weight of their bodies not a completely proportional increase.

Also, we actually can see Sazed use examples of his increased weight to enhance his strength when he isn't working against gravity. While subtle because he's also tapping Pewter at the time, but when he's holding the gate in WoA. He's using the increased weight to make it easier to hold the gates closed during the siege. 

Edited September 5, 2021 by StanLemon

[DoctaDajman]

21 hours ago, StanLemon said:

The other answer is that strength is more complicated than that. Just because you have the strength to move doesn't mean it translates to being able to lift more are put more force into a movement. Take people that weigh 400 lbs for example, their body is constantly exerting the strength to move that much weight but no one would say they are particularly strong. In fact they would often be considered physically weaker than the average person. The way the magic works I've mostly assumed any added strength is only just enough to counterbalance the increased weight of their bodies not a completely proportional increase.

Also, we actually can see Sazed use examples of his increased weight to enhance his strength when he isn't working against gravity. While subtle because he's also tapping Pewter at the time, but when he's holding the gate in WoA. He's using the increased weight to make it easier to hold the gates closed during the siege. 

I guess that is sort of what I am eluding to.  This is a much more modern example (and heaven knows leg press is a terrible gauge anyways) but that simulated strength to held the weight of a person... when not used to hold the weight of that person.  Does it exist or not?  

If you can do 50 push-ups in 2 minutes at 190lbs and decided to make your weight 10x that much for those same 2 minutes would you be able to do 50 push-ups still?  Why then does that not increase your bench at the same time?  If you can do 10 muscle ups at 190 can you do 10 muscle ups at 1900?  

If yes... what changes that says you can do 10 muscle ups at 1900 but can still only wield the same hammer that you used to?  

If you were in a position where you are on your back and you have to kick a heavy opponent off of you and you tap weight your strength to squat a 1900 lb you doesn't translate into being better equipped to kick off a 300 lb attacker?  You could lift yourself in a squat but since you are suddenly not pushing off the ground your own weight and instead are pushing off of another being or another item you don't have the strength to do it?