Aluminum with an electric charge running through it

[Rlain]

If you were to create an electromagnet out of aluminum (say by winding a wire of it around a pencil to create a solenoid), and ran an electric current through it, would an allomancer be able to push on it?  The aluminum is allomatically inert, but if allomancy is piggy-backing on magnetism, it should still be able to act upon the object.  Especially if we consider one of Wax's force bubbles that have no specific target, so it wouldn't need to "target" the aluminum.

[Yata he/him]

The Steel/Iron Allomancy doesn't work with magnetism in any way therefore you can't still push pull on Alluminium

[heridfel]

I think that it is unlikely that an allomancer would be able to push on aluminum with an induced magnetic field. The challenge is that whatever you are using to induce the magnetic field is probably going to be much susceptible to allomancy than the aluminum itself - paramagnetism is not very strong compared to ferromagnetism.

 

While I was researching my answer to your question, I came up with a related one of my own. If you heat an permanent magnet past its Curie point, the thermal energy disrupts the aligned magnetic spin in the material and it is no longer magnetic. So if an allomancer were suspended above a vat of molten iron (above 1043 K), could he Push on it?

 

Oh, finally, according to the entry for Steel on Coppermind, it isn't dependent on magnetism. That fact doesn't have a citation with it, but presuming it's based on a WoB, this was all just fun theorizing.

[Voidus]

Yeah Iron and Steel can push on any metals, not just those that are magnetic.

Another interesting question is, if you did the above, could you push/pull on other, non-aluminium objects caught in the field?

[Rlain]

Thanks for all the responses, guys.  I had assumed that Allomancy was operating on magnetism, which a number of you have informed me it does not actually do.  Thanks for the info.

[Erunion he/him]

It's an important distinction! Magnetism is subject to many constraints (especially with regards to which metals are magnetically active), constraints allomancy doesn't share. 

Furthermore, magnetism causes lots of interesting side effects (inducing current, messing with electromagnetic transmissions like radio waves, that kind of thing). Allomancy doesn't have those effects.

 

Allomancy is, however, SIMILAR to magnetism, in that it can only directly push or directly pull. It also has differing effectiveness based on size and distance, which is also similar to magnetism. But it is not magnetism, nor is it 'scientifically' in the same boat. 

[Thunder_93]

Other question about pushing / pulling Aluminum:

 

I know it's said Aluminum can't be pushed at all, nor influenced by other magic systems.

But the same was said about metals inside of your body.

 

The Lord Ruler was allomanticly so strong he easily could push on the metals in Vins body.

So, might it be possible, that somebody with the strength of the Lord Ruler (or by being spiked several times with allomantic steel to become a super-strong coinshot) can push on Aluminum?

If it's not 100% Aluminum, he could probably effect the small pollutions of other metals in the Aluminum.

But i mean, could they probably push on 100% Aluminum?

Same for Stormlight-healing / Gold-healing, might it be possible to heal not healable "Aluminum-Wounds" by simply totally overpowering (putting waaaaayyy more Investiture in it then usually)

[natc]

I would imagine the internal metal issue is because humans are invested. Investiture in general interferes with magical influence at high concentration.

Meanwhile mundane aluminum straight out of the ground is immune to physical external allomancy and disrupts healing in the vicinity. It can be created by magic, however, and even has allomantic, feruchemical, and hemalurgic effects.

Aluminum seems less the type of thing that resists magic and more that it selectively makes certain aspects of magic fail in its presence.

Edited April 6, 2016 by natc

[Stormgate he/him]

Certain aspects? Try every applicable one. It is the Unforgable Metal on Sel, wounds made by aluminum cannot be healed by either Allomantic steel or Feruchemical gold, it likely performs all the effects of a Coppercloud when used as a covering...

That's most of the cool stuff aluminum resists. I'm probably going to freak out when we learn more about what exactly Feruchemical Identity is. Yeah, it allows some interesting hacks, but what else?

[Master_Moridin he/him]

Certain aspects? Try every applicable one. It is the Unforgable Metal on Sel, wounds made by aluminum cannot be healed by either Allomantic steel or Feruchemical gold, it likely performs all the effects of a Coppercloud when used as a covering...

That's most of the cool stuff aluminum resists. I'm probably going to freak out when we learn more about what exactly Feruchemical Identity is. Yeah, it allows some interesting hacks, but what else?

Did you mean Allomantic pewter?

[natc]

The fact that feruchemical identity can be stored at all is not disrupted. You are literally pumping your innate investiture into it at this point, it works fine. You can spike with it, it works.

If not all the time, sometimes investiture manipulation works next to aluminum.

[Erunion he/him]

Certain aspects? Try every applicable one. It is the Unforgable Metal on Sel, wounds made by aluminum cannot be healed by either Allomantic steel or Feruchemical gold, it likely performs all the effects of a Coppercloud when used as a covering...

That's most of the cool stuff aluminum resists. I'm probably going to freak out when we learn more about what exactly Feruchemical Identity is. Yeah, it allows some interesting hacks, but what else?

 

Where do we get the quote that Aluminum interferes with Gold healing? AFAIK, it doesn't? Just re-read Alloy of Law/Shadows of Self, and it never comes up. You think Wayne would have noticed, or they'd have used Aluminum against Miles Hundredlives if it did? 

[Voidus]

Where do we get the quote that Aluminum interferes with Gold healing? AFAIK, it doesn't? Just re-read Alloy of Law/Shadows of Self, and it never comes up. You think Wayne would have noticed, or they'd have used Aluminum against Miles Hundredlives if it did? 

It's direct from Brandon, it only impacts the healing for as long as it's in the actual wound though, the wounds themselves aren't any harder to heal.

[Pathfinder]

And just to clarify a misnomer I read elsewhere, it is only for that particular wound. It doesn't shut down all healing in the target. So if you shot a gold compounder with one aluminum bullet, and 3 normal bullets, the 3 normal would heal and be pushed out, but the one aluminum would remain till forceably removed. Then it would heal as per normal compounding. 

[Erunion he/him]

It's direct from Brandon, it only impacts the healing for as long as it's in the actual wound though, the wounds themselves aren't any harder to heal.

 

 

And just to clarify a misnomer I read elsewhere, it is only for that particular wound. It doesn't shut down all healing in the target. So if you shot a gold compounder with one aluminum bullet, and 3 normal bullets, the 3 normal would heal and be pushed out, but the one aluminum would remain till forceably removed. Then it would heal as per normal compounding. 

 

Thanks for the clarification! That makes sense!