The infinitely confusing power of bendalloy and cadmium

[Kolfire]

Question:

What if there was a metal that was the inverse of bendalloy? And I mean the literal inverse. Not like cadmium/chromium. Instead of slowing time for you, it would speed everyone else up. Those might as well be the same thing though, the reader thinks. The reader is right. But if they are the same, we have a problem. Because, confusingly, if this is true, bendalloy and cadmium are both infinitely more powerful then the other metal at what it does. I know that makes no sense, but bear with me.

If... slowing time for you speeds everyone else up,

then... Cadmium speeds up everything not in the bubble

then... Cadmium speeds up infinite space

then... Cadmium is better than bendalloy at being bendalloy.

Unfortunately, if we accept that, things start to break.

The facts:

With Bendalloy, speeding up more space requires more energy

Therefore, speeding up infinite space with Cadmium should take infinite energy

Infinite energy is represented by one cadmium pellet

Speeding up infinite space at 2 times the speed would also require infinite energy

It should only take one cadmium pellet

It takes 2

What happened?!?!

Some things should be possible with Cadmium and Bendalloy which aren't. For instance,

If a pellet has infinite energy, it should last forever.

It should also be able to be flared at ridiculously high rates forever.

[Oversleep]

It's all relative. Speeding up everything else and slowing down everything in the bubble around you may not be the exactly same things, but the effects are the same.

 

Just assume that while bendalloy speeds up timeflow in the bubble, cadmium slows it down. Therefore, no problems with infinite spaces and energies.

[king of nowhere]

yes, reference systems are relative, so you could probably come up with a consistent physical explanation on it. Just the same way that you could say that when you do press-ups you are not lifting yourself, you are lowering the world while you remain perfectly still, and there are ways to make the calculations work. but really, we all know you really are lifting yourself. same with cadmium. it slows time for you, and that's it.

[tobar14 he/him]

then... Cadmium speeds up infinite space

You are making a large assumption that Brandon's cosmere is infinitely large. What if the cosmere is finite???

[natc]

I was under the impression that the "cosmere" as the name refers to is a single galaxy, and we have no clue how anything works beyond that . . .

And yeah, you simply have to act on the bubble.

Edited May 29, 2016 by natc