Flying men in the Cosmere

[anarchitect]

I was wandering, if a character had both Allomancy and Feruchemy powers, could he fly by using an iron ring on one hand to store weight to becoming very light, and to use steel to push on that ring and fly in any direction he is pointing at?... That sound like a very cool method to fly through the Cosmere. And with delirium you can break the sonic barrier!!!! 

[Edgedancer he/him]

You wold most likely push or rip the ring from your finger. It´s also possible that storing weight like that reduces your push strenght.

[king of nowhere]

you can't fly by pushing a ring in your hand, because of action and reaction law. the best you could achieve that way would be to rip off your finger.

the best way i see of flying as a twinborn would be to have a metal anchor cconnected to a rubber band, you push on it while tapping wheight and the anchor goes away pulling the rubber while you move very little, then you stop pushing and start storing wheight, so when the rubber band pull back this time you move significantly towards the anchor.

I'm not sure you could accelerate enough to beat gravity that way, so you'd probably also need some helium ballon. but if you have a helium balloon you can probably put a helix on it. it's probably more trouble than it's worth.

On the other hand, it could be useful to move in space without fuel. it would be painstakingly difficult to get any fine control, though.

[killersquirrel59 he/him]

I'd say that reducing your weight would likely reduce your push strength, or at least require an anchor. Thus reducing your weight to less than that of the ring would cause you to fly back from the ring.

[Newan he/him]

The biggest problem I can see is with conservation of momentum.  Momentum is mass times velocity, so that means whenever you increased your weight, you would slow down.  

 

Here's how we would like it:

Push on a chunk of metal while light.  Fly into the air.

Get heavy so pulling on the metal doesn't slow you down much.  Pull the metal back up to you.

Get light again, then push off of it and repeat.  

 

Here's how it would go.

Push on the chunk of metal while light.  Fly into the air.

Get heavy and slow down a lot.%2

Edited September 26, 2014 by New One

[king of nowhere]

The biggest problem I can see is with conservation of momentum.  Momentum is mass times velocity, so that means whenever you increased your weight, you would slow down.  

 

Here's how we would like it:

Push on a chunk of metal while light.  Fly into the air.

Get heavy so pulling on the metal doesn't slow you down much.  Pull the metal back up to you.

Get light again, then push off of it and repeat.  

 

Here's how it would go.

Push on the chunk of metal while light.  Fly into the air.

Get heavy and slow down a lot.%2

the way i understood it, Feruchemical iron breaks conservation of momentum.

for example, wax pushed himself towards the lamps, then increased his wheight and pushed the lamps, shattering them. he didn't slow down. tapping Feruchemical iron while moving effectively increases your momentum.

[Moogle]

Feruchemical iron breaks everything. It's an easy way to generate infinite electricity. If mechanical Feruchemy becomes a thing and everything is not powered via Feruchemical iron flywheels, I will be very upset with Brandon.

 

As to flying via one anchor, it's doable with Feruchemical iron and Allomantic iron. Your anchor needs to be pretty hefty, though. You jump up, then go heavy and pull the anchor up to you. Then you go light, and let anchor hit you and push you up, then you jump up and go heavy and pull the anchor to you. It sounds really tricky (and takes a lot of physical exertion!) to pull off, but it is definitely doable. I can imagine a Twinborn doing it as part of a circus act. Though, that would be a waste when they could be busy turning iron into infinite energy.

[king of nowhere]

Feruchemical iron breaks everything. It's an easy way to generate infinite electricity. If mechanical Feruchemy becomes a thing and everything is not powered via Feruchemical iron flywheels, I will be very upset with Brandon.

 

As to flying via one anchor, it's doable with Feruchemical iron and Allomantic iron. Your anchor needs to be pretty hefty, though. You jump up, then go heavy and pull the anchor up to you. Then you go light, and let anchor hit you and push you up, then you jump up and go heavy and pull the anchor to you. It sounds really tricky (and takes a lot of physical exertion!) to pull off, but it is definitely doable. I can imagine a Twinborn doing it as part of a circus act. Though, that would be a waste when they could be busy turning iron into infinite energy.

the "iron into infinite energy" thing is not as cool as it appears. true, it can teoretically generate infinite amounts of energy, but in practice you need a feruchemist and it can only generate so much. if my calculations are correct, you can teoretically generate up to a few hundred watts. even if they are wrong, i seriously doubt a feruchemist could power more than a single household. so, unless you have three feruchemist in each house working 8 hours/day in three turns, you won't be able to power anything relevant with that trick. it's just a matter of scale.

[Moogle]

the "iron into infinite energy" thing is not as cool as it appears. true, it can teoretically generate infinite amounts of energy, but in practice you need a feruchemist and it can only generate so much. if my calculations are correct, you can teoretically generate up to a few hundred watts. even if they are wrong, i seriously doubt a feruchemist could power more than a single household. so, unless you have three feruchemist in each house working 8 hours/day in three turns, you won't be able to power anything relevant with that trick. it's just a matter of scale.

 

An Iron Compounder would generate far, far more, and you can also set up Feruchemical iron "fabrials". The southern Scadrians figured out how to do it, apparently. The fabrial use is my main interest, as it could easily power everything.

[killersquirrel59 he/him]

It's notable that Feruchemical iron does not affect mass it affects weight. What is more, it is notably affecting the gravitational pull on you. Therefore conservation of momentum does not play as big a part as it might appear. 

[JJRosso]

Read WoR. Thats in the cosmere.

[Oudeis he/him]

An Iron Compounder would generate far, far more, and you can also set up Feruchemical iron "fabrials". The southern Scadrians figured out how to do it, apparently. The fabrial use is my main interest, as it could easily power everything.

 

Remember, though, that apart from that one vague reference, we know literally nothing about the "metal fabrials" people keep discussing. You can assume it provides infinite allomantic energy at zero cost, but I personally will be surprised if that turns out to be the actual case.

[Hoid Is Dead]

 

 

I was wandering, if a character had both Allomancy and Feruchemy powers, could he fly by using an iron ring on one hand to store weight to becoming very light, and to use steel to push on that ring and fly in any direction he is pointing at?... That sound like a very cool method to fly through the Cosmere. And with delirium you can break the sonic barrier!!!! 

 

Imagine a magnet attached to a car, then at the same time attracting it so it can "move" the vehicle forward.

Will it move? I think not. Sorry if I misinterpreted this one, but seeing things from Cosmere, the basic principles still applies their. But I'm just throwing my cent here.

[Kurkistan he/him]

It's notable that Feruchemical iron does not affect mass it affects weight. What is more, it is notably affecting the gravitational pull on you. Therefore conservation of momentum does not play as big a part as it might appear. 

 

This is incorrect.

Edited October 22, 2014 by Kurkistan