"orbiting" iron pulling

[Thor he/him]

No word on if making the Lurcher move changes the math (it probably would), but here's what I was basing my statement on, bolded for emphasis.

<snip>

The bolded and italicized part i took to mean you couldn't hold an object above your center of mass, either. Correct me if I'm wrong.

You are correct, though not quite for those reasons. The angle of declination is not exactly the reason why you cannot keep a stable horizontal orbit when there is gravity involved, though it is slightly related. The reason why you cannot hold an orbit above that plane is because the y-component of the T vector adds with (instead of cancelling) the force of gravity vector, which means that the object HAS to be accelerating downwards. This is also the reason why a stable horizontal orbit is impossible. Only gravity is acting in the vertical direction, causing a downward acceleration. The situation is much different with an object below the Allomancer's CoM, as the y-component of the T vector can be used to cancel out gravity, making the only net force acting on the object a horizontal one, which is the definition of centripetal acceleration/force, which is the basis for orbits.

If the Lurcher is moving in a horizontal path then the orbits are changed (they require a time and possibly a velocity component to work properly) though the above the head or at the CoM orbits are still impossible. I don't feel like doing the math for those though. The over the head and under the feet is hard enough...

Edited December 13, 2011 by Thor

[Pechvarry]

So what about slanted orbits?

an item passes over your right shoulder, you Pull it so it swings past your left hip, back up to your right shoulder. It wouldn't be a perfectly circular or even elliptical orbit, I reckon, and it would still fail as the object loses speed, but it seems like it'd last a lot longer than trying to maintain a horizontal orbit.

Whenever you start to feel the orbit decay, you "drop" the item and wait for it to get below your waist line before pulling it back up again.

Also, we now need Kung Fu in our Mistborn books. Imagine a dude with a rope+metal ball (meteor hammer, kusari, whatever) on the end throwing it out at angles and Lurching to change its course, adding all sorts of angular velocity.

Edited December 13, 2011 by Pechvarry

[happyman he/him]

So what about slanted orbits?

an item passes over your right shoulder, you Pull it so it swings past your left hip, back up to your right shoulder. It wouldn't be a perfectly circular or even elliptical orbit, I reckon, and it would still fail as the object loses speed, but it seems like it'd last a lot longer than trying to maintain a horizontal orbit.

Whenever you start to feel the orbit decay, you "drop" the item and wait for it to get below your waist line before pulling it back up again.

Also, we now need Kung Fu in our Mistborn books. Imagine a dude with a rope+metal ball (meteor hammer, kusari, whatever) on the end throwing it out at angles and Lurching to change its course, adding all sorts of angular velocity.

The basic parameter for any orbit, regardless of shape, is the curvature. Since the Allomantic force isn't tied to the mass like gravity is, the mathematics of allowed orbits is complex, but the basic constraints are true no matter the shape.

[campino]

Wow. I leave town for a week, and suddenly everybody wants to comment on my silly idea. Fun to see other people get as excited about it as I was