Shouldn’t Wax be a lot stronger?

[etmental]

Alright so I am new here and tried asking this question when i introduced myself. Basically I was referred here haha. I can’t figure out how to quote myself yet so i just copies my original post:

 

Alright so first off i’m new here so hi! 

I’ll get right into it:

Brandon is pretty much a genius, he is so talented and one of the things that has always impressed me is the way he incorporates physics into his systems of magic, and not even just physics, but a detailed explanation and a set of logical rules that are paired with any magic system. It’s so refreshing.

There are of course a few things that I am confused by every once in a while though. 

Why, when Wax increases his weight, does he not become super strong?

And before you get confused since it is apparent that he does absolutely become strong anough to be essentially immune to the effects of his increased mass, here is what I mean. 

When Wax taps his weightmind his body becomes more sturday and strong enough to support all this new weight. When he makes himself heavier he can still walk around fine, and if he is strong enough to lift a 50 lb weight when he is at normal weight, he can do it just as easily when he is twice his weight. 

however

If Wax can do let’s say 100 push-ups normally, he is able to push around bad guys using that strength that he gets from doing push-ups. That is pretty straight forward. 

Because of the properties of storing weight  even if Wax was 5x heavier than usual, he could still do 100 push-ups because his strength is increased proportionally to his increase in weight. 

This is where I get confused. 

At 5x times his weight his arms(or pecs and triceps or whatever) are compensated by being 5x as strong. 

So...why when Wax punches somebody when he is tapping weight does he not hit THAT much harder?? 

PLUS! If he has more mass, due to the conservation of momentum, an arm that weighs 5x as much as a normal arm would obviously do a lot more damage when punching somebody than a regular arm. 

 

Let me me know what you guys think. I tried emailing Brandon about this a month or so back using his contact page from his website but never got a response (but I know he’s busy)

 

[Mr. Superficiality]

Your absolutely right when it comes to the conservation of mass production in fact in Alloy of law when Wax hits Miles Hundred Lives he does hit harder but you don't notice it because Miles can heal ridiculously fast but when Wax becomes heavier his body is reinforced but he has the same amount of strength so he can hit harder (by falling on them or into them) but he can't move move faster or be stronger. In other words durability is increased but not strength 

[ScarletSabre he/him]

Force equals mass times acceleration, but if I recall correctly, Wax isn't increasing his mass, simply the denisty of said mass to grow heavier, so while punches may have more weight behind them, he's also slower to balance out.... I think. I need to reread Era 2 to remind myself, I think... especially Khriss' comments on Skimming.

[Wandering Investor]

Someone might have a better answer, but as I understand it, tapping Iron increases the body's ability to resist being crushed by its own weight. So its not getting stronger, just not being crushed. You can add weight to punches and attacks. The problem is that it doesn't increase your body's resistance to damage. Its increasing your mass, but not your density. So even with your weight tapped, a bullet will still go through you. That's pulled directly from Alloy of Law annotations chapter six. Expanding on that, I suspect you could use your weight to go through a wall, but it would still hurt you, especially if there are any sharp edges. Plus judging from Wax's injuries after going through a floor and having people land on top of him, he's able to resist being crushed by his own weight, but any additional weight would affect him normally. So people landing on Wax will hurt him the same, no matter if he has weight tapped or not.

[Quickbronze he/him]

If I recall correctly(been a while since I read Era One) Sazed taps a lot of weight to hold a gate at one point(to hold back a Koloss army?) and during that scene, he is much slower and less agile than he normally would be. This suggests that the reinforcement isn't directly proportional to the change in weight.

[Yata he/him]

2 hours ago, Quickbronze said:

If I recall correctly(been a while since I read Era One) Sazed taps a lot of weight to hold a gate at one point(to hold back a Koloss army?) and during that scene, he is much slower and less agile than he normally would be. This suggests that the reinforcement isn't directly proportional to the change in weight.

Yeah Feruchemy gives a degree of protection from his own effects but this protection is limited, too much Weight tapped and a Skimmer would be' crashed too.

A Firesoul Will end burning himself alive if he tap too much Heat or there will be' a point where the G-Force resistance that a Steelrunner gains Will be' not enough.

I could continue but yeah, Feruchemy helps to manage Its own effect but the help isn't Unlimited.

[Xtafa]

If he constantly went around with heavy weight, he could essentially use it to weight train and get stronger but otherwise no, his strength wouldn't be any stronger.

[This is part of the reason Wolverine for example is still strong when depowered, because he has spent his life wearing metal]  

[Sihde]

On 4/22/2018 at 6:19 PM, Wandering Investor said:

 That's pulled directly from Alloy of Law annotations chapter six.

Where do you find the annotations for Alloy of Law? I've found Warbreaker's annotations but nothing else.

[Wandering Investor]

9 hours ago, Sihde said:

Where do you find the annotations for Alloy of Law? I've found Warbreaker's annotations but nothing else.

https://brandonsanderson.com/library/ and scroll down to the annotations section.

[Sihde]

that's a great resource thank you!