what does lashing do?

[not an Evil Librarian]

So, when you lash an object, you cut the connection to gravity and make the same amount of force act on the object in a different direction. With a double lashing, twice the force is exerted on the object. My question is this: "does a double lashing increase the object's mass, or it's acceleration in order to do this?" does a double lashing make something twice as heavy, or make it fall faster?

[Jofwu he/him]

It should increase the force/acceleration--not the mass of the object.

Increasing the mass wouldn't [directly] make things accelerate faster and isn't really in line with what gravity... does.

You're mixing up mass and weight at the end though. A given mass will weigh twice as much if you apply twice as much force/acceleration to it. A double lashing makes something twice as heavy AND makes it fall faster. What it doesn't do is increase the mass of the thing.

[Rainier]

Two objects of different mass will accelerate at the same rate due to gravity. The larger mass is pulled harder by gravity, but also resists more due to inertia.

The acceleration is what gets doubled. Force = Mass * Acceleration. Weight is a force. The acceleration of gravity (on earth) is ~9.8 m/s^2. We know gravity is different on Roshar, but this is the factor that gets doubled, or halved, by lashings. Mass stays constant, and so changing the acceleration is what changes the force (gravity/weight) applied.

[Subvisual Haze]

On 4/17/2019 at 1:57 PM, not an Evil Librarian said:

So, when you lash an object, you cut the connection to gravity and make the same amount of force act on the object in a different direction. With a double lashing, twice the force is exerted on the object. My question is this: "does a double lashing increase the object's mass, or it's acceleration in order to do this?" does a double lashing make something twice as heavy, or make it fall faster?

I don't think you actually cut the the gravitational field, but first reorient portions of it and after that you can apply multiple additional lashes in the same direction or additional directions if desired.  See this bit from the Ars Arcanum:

"Fractional Basic Lashings are also possible; a half-Lashing can be used to make an object weightless, and a quarter-Lashing to cut its weight in half."

Based on the language used and the basic math we can see that the fractional lashes aren't just a static force opposing gravity, they're reorientating part of the object's mass in a different direction for purposes of the effect of the gravitational field.  Lash the object 1/2 lash up and, and now we have 1/2 gravity field remaining down, 1/2 up, and no net movement, weightlessness.  Lash up a quarter-lash and we have 1/4 mass orientated up, 3/4 remaining down, net effect is half gravity.  The object's mass remain's the same, it's the weight (force of gravity on the object, proportional to mass) that is being tweaked.

So the general equation is A=F/M.  Usually the Force is (standard gravity)*mass.  As a result of the two equations mass typically has no effect on acceleration.  Mass increases the force of gravity's pull, but also decreases the acceleration of the object by the same amount.

Because the lashings reorientate gravity though, the force generated by gravity is redirected or diminished, however the mass in the acceleration equation remains constant.

Edited April 19, 2019 by Subvisual Haze