Stormlight Thermodynamics and Circuits

[Lightspine]

This post is the consequence of the most recent chapter epigraph about how the metal "conducts" stormlight, but it took a bit of a left turn and I actually barely theorize about what that metal might be. It is also sort of an extension of a comment I posted almost three months ago. If you're interested, here it is: (Although I will be reiterating most of the information there, so it is not necessary for you to read first)

In this comment, I provided a theory about how and why stormlight moves in terms of changes in potential energy. To be clear here, the potential energy I refer to is not the energy of the investure that makes up the stormlight, but rather the potential energy of the stormlight's position in the environment. For example, if you put an infused sphere at the top of Urithiru, it would have a lot more potential energy than the same sphere at ground level. This potential energy is due to the sphere's ability to drop, not because of the amount of stormlight it contains.

Without any barriers, any system will tend towards having the lowest potential energy. Balls will roll downhill. Stormlight will move from positions of higher potential energy to positions of lower energy.

In addition to differences in potential energy, we need to talk about "activation energy" here, which is a concept from chemical kinetics. Basically, activation energy acts as a barrier to a process. Rather than determining whether a process will happen*, it determines how quickly it will happen. (*Note: if you make the barrier high enough, you can stop something from happening by making it ridiculously slow). This barrier is the reason why the processes I describe will not happen instantaneously. So, here's my energy diagram for stormlight:

Here are my justifications for the features of this diagram:

• All stormlight eventually returns to a free, gaseous state not held in any object. However, that does not guarantee that it is the lowest energy state. If it behaves like water in the water cycle, then it could "evaporate" despite the fact that this process increases energy. I have no true evidence that stormlight is lower in energy at a free state than when it is in a gemstone, but this is the simplest placement. You could place it between "Gemstone (Small)" and "Radiant" without really changing this thoery, although small adjustments would have to be made.
• Large gemstones leak stormlight slowly, so there is a large barrier which slows down this process.
• Small gemstones leak more quickly, so the barrier for this process is smaller.
• Stormlight will automatically transfer from a smaller gemstone to nearby larger gemstones during the process of trapping a spren. This process is spontaneous, so the potential energy of stormlight in a large gemstone is lower than that in a high gemstone.
• EDIT: I don't know why I didn't think of this sooner. Perhaps the best explanation for why larger gemstones are lower energy has to do with the "concentration" of stormlight. It's very possible that the energy density of stormlight in a fully charged small gemstone and large gemstone are equal. The same quantity of stormlight in a smaller gemstone, however, occupies less volume. Thus, when given the opportunity it will "diffuse" to a larger empty gemstone where it takes up more volume. Basically, the potential energy of stormlight in a gemstone increases as the concentration does. This is more in line with the description of stormlight as moving along a pressure gradient, since this is how pressure works in gasses. If you have gas in a small container and you allow it to move to a larger one, it will diffuse between the two. The only difference is that it would leave some gas in the small container. Don't know if that happens for stormlight.
• Features of gemstones such as their cut determine the size of the barriers, but not the energy of stormlight within the gemstone.
• Stormlight is at a higher energy when held by a Radiant than when held by a gemstone. I know this because when Kaladin swears the third oath, stormlight entering him from nearby gems causes the air to grow cold and form frost. This means the process consumed energy.
• Objects other than Radiants and gemstones are even higher in energy. We know this because when Szeth or Kaladin infuse an object with a lot of stormlight, the object grows cold and forms frost. Again, this is a consequence of energy being consumed. (That is what the arrows saying "endothermic" in my diagram mean). A really common demonstration in chemistry classes is to perform an endothermic reaction in a beaker above a block of wood, with some water in between. The water will freeze, binding the beaker to the wood.
• High-investure conditions refers to states such as Honor's perpendicularity, from which stormlight will burst out and fill gemstones.

 

 

 

So far, this is identical to the theory in my much earlier comment, except with the additional evidence of the frost-formation, which I didn't think of three months ago.

Now, you can probably see how the conductive metal does its thing according to this theory—it reduces the energy barrier between a Radiant and a gemstone, therefore facilitating this transfer quickly. This is the point where I decided to focus too much on the word "conducting" and went off the rails by drawing circuits. (Disclaimer: I am a chemistry student, so I'm pretty well versed with thermodynamics but am less confident with circuits. Please help me out if you actually know circuits super well)

So, how do circuits relate to thermodynamics? Well, the driving force behind the current in any circuit is a difference in potential energy of electrons at the beginning of a circuit versus the end of a circuit. In this analogy, I well be relating the movement of stormlight to the current. (And yes, I'm using positive current. Despite the fact electrons flow the other way. Maybe that's dumb, go ahead and flip all the signs if you wish). Stored stormlight will be represented as stored charge—a capacitor! Here is where things get a bit tricky though. A capacitor, in the simplest case, consists of two parallel sheets of metal which each store opposing electric charge. The capacitor will fill with charge when it is connected to a battery, and without a battery it will act as a source of charge and produce a current in a closed circuit. Now, in order for this to work with stormlight I had to make some... adjustments. The object holding the stormlight cannot really be represented by the capacitor itself, but rather by one of the sheets of the capacitor. The other sheet of the capacitor represents the object that the stormlight is flowing to or from. As I switch between different processes, I will be switching these sheets out. Which is not really a thing that happens in circuits. It felt weird. (I think there might be an easier way to do this that has to do with something called "ground" but uhhh as I said I'm not too well versed at this so any electrical engineers please help).

(Also, for those unfamiliar with circuit notation: a capacitor is two parallel lines of equal length. A battery is two parallel lines of unequal length. Resistors will be zig-zags).

Let's apply this to the simplest case: stormlight being held in a gemstone.

The infused gemstone acts like a positively charged plate in a capacitor. Freedom represents the negatively charged plate. Stormlight, represented as current, which flows from the positive plate to the negative plate, escapes the gemstone.

The barrier to this process is represented by a resistor, which slows the transfer down. In this case, the resistance is very high and the transfer takes a long time (days).

 

 

 

 

 

Next, we can look at the process of a Radiant drawing in stormlight from a gemstone. This is an endothermic process (it increases energy) so energy must be supplied to facilitate it. In this case, the Radiant has the power to act as a battery:

On the left is the initial state. On the right is the final state. This is also the first example of the weirdness that was a consequence of using capacitor plates to represent objects. Why is the gemstone, which begins infused, initially uncharged? Well, if I had given it a positive charge, the battery (Radiant) wouldn't have been needed to drive the flow of current. In order to represent the fact that the gemstone is lower in energy than the Radiant, despite containing stormlight, I had to make the plate begin as uncharged.

 

 

 

 

Afterwards, the Radiant will look like this:

Basically, the same as with an infused gemstone. The only difference here is that the resistance is much lower, allowing current to flow faster (the stormlight leaks faster).

 

 

 

 

 

 

When a Radiant gets stabbed by one of those special conductive Fused spears, the resistance essentially disappears:

Thus, current (stormlight) flows very quickly from the positive plate (Radiant) to the negative plate (gemstone).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When a Windrunner like Kaladin infuses an object with stormlight, the process looks very similar to when the Radiant draws stormlight from a gemstone. The Windrunner acts as a battery and transfers stormlight from lower energy to higher energy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(Okay these are the last ones I promise) What happens after the object is infused? There are two subtly different possibilities that involve circuits, and one which doesn't:

The first possibility is that, as the stormlight leaves the object, some of the potential energy that it is releasing is converted into the effect of the surge. At first, this option seems to be the most appealing because it is how stuff gets powered in real-life electrical circuits. (like lightbulbs) (by the way, this process also involves some resistance so it doesn't happen all at once) However, there's a bit of an issue here. If the surge is produced by stormlight leaving the object, the an object like a gemstone, which has a much higher "resistance" and thus slower stormlight loss, should exhibit the surge less strongly. Since this is not the case, I believe the second possibility is more accurate: that there is a small amount of resistance which leads to the object losing stormlight quickly, and that the effect of the surge is maintained as long as there is stormlight left in the object.

The third explanation kind of defies circuits and it is that stormlight is actually consumed to produce the surge. Since current is never consumed when an electrical circuit, I couldn't figure out a way to represent that. This is also the reason why I haven't represented stormlight healing or surges such as Soulcasting or Progression, which appear to consume stormlight.

The same conundrum applies to fabrials: do they consume the stormlight, or do they consume potential energy as the stormlight escapes them?

Anyway, thank you to anybody who actually read this whole thing. Wow. You're almost as crazy as I am for writing this. For those who didn't, I totally understand. Although I can't quite come up with a good TL;DR. I might include that later.

(Edit: wow a lot of the formatting here is wonky. There's extra blank lines and weird indents all over the place)

Edited November 5, 2020 by Lightspine
Edited theory on gemstones

[Halyo_Alex]

I feel like the actual physical substance the metal is made of has the potential to be quite simple; Duralumin.

The epigraphs all throughout the preview chapters have been cementing the fact that the Allomantic metals function as modifiers in fabrials, altering the behavior of the spren inside.

Aluminum blocks investiture, so it makes perfect sense (to me, at least) that its alloy conducts investiture (makes it easier for Investiture to move from point A to point B). And wouldn't you know, that alloy is Duralumin. As for what exactly that would induce in a fabrial itself, I'm not 100% sure on yet. But in this case it seems to allow the gemstone to siphon Investiture from another source when the Duralumin is touching it.

[Truthwatcher Artifabrian]

5 hours ago, Halyo_Alex said:

Aluminum blocks investiture, so it makes perfect sense (to me, at least) that its alloy conducts investiture (makes it easier for Investiture to move from point A to point B). And wouldn't you know, that alloy is Duralumin. As for what exactly that would induce in a fabrial itself, I'm not 100% sure on yet. But in this case it seems to allow the gemstone to siphon Investiture from another source when the Duralumin is touching it.

Now we have a way to automate the hardest step of the fabrial creation process. Sucking the Stormlight out of the gemstone.

[Gilphon]

13 hours ago, Truthwatcher Artifabrian said:

Now we have a way to automate the hardest step of the fabrial creation process. Sucking the Stormlight out of the gemstone.

Huh. Navani did say that some guilds have methods of doing that she's not aware of. Do you think that those guilds have known about Duralumin all along?

[Leuthie]

Keep in mind, Odium's color seems to be a "burning" gold. The knife used to kill Jezrien was a light gold. A godmetal or godmetal alloy as the Investiture conductor with the sapphire gem as the storage device.

It's quite possible that there is some potential energy (potential Investiture?) difference that caused the sapphire to pull the high potential Cognitive Shadow that is Jezrien into itself. The material of the knife, how it was Connected to the gem, how it was Connected to the wielder and how the Connection was made to the target all provided a conduit between the shell of Jezriel (high potential) and the gem (low potential).

Dalinar was able to use a large, perfect ruby to capture Nergaoul. The gem by itself was doing no pulling because there was no Connection. Dalinar had an existing Connection to Nergaoul, pulled on this Connection while holding the stone, and transferred that Connection to the gem using his Bondsmith Connection to the powers provided by the Stormfather

Connection is the key term here. From what we've seen, in the Cosmere, physical phenomena are secondary effects to Connection and Investiture. Connection DEFINES Physical phenomena, allowing those phenomena to be altered by use of Investiture: a Windrunner Lashing changes the direction of effect of gravity (a secondary Physical phenomena that normally Connects Physical objects to the planet they're on) using Stormlight (Investiture) and a Bond (Connection) to a Spren (the Cognitive aspect of a Physical or phenomena).

It's quite possible that gems that aren't holding Investiture are considered to be in low potential, and creating a Connection allows high potential (high Investiture).

 

BTW, Stormlight isn't consumed. The relationship between Investiture, Energy and Matter is a fully conservative one. Investiture moves between one place, state or Realm and another, it is neither lost nor gained. I would postulate that the act of Healing, for instance, uses the innate Investiture of the object being Healed first. This creates a low potential state must be filled in by more Investiture for the action to continue. The Connection created by the Healing creates a conduit for Stormlight (where there is Stormlight there is a very high potential) to fill in the Investiture being used for the action. This shouldn't be considered consumption, as the "used" Investiture is being transferred to the Spiritual Realm to create the desired change. On Roshar, Honor's Perpendicularity creates a Connection between the Spiritual Realm and Physical to allow raw Investiture to be transferred in the form of Stormlight. Normally, this Perpendicularity is located in the Storm. The remnants of the Shard of Honor are creating the difference in potential that powers this whole cycle.

I wish I could organize all that better. In any case, I like it.

 

I do believe that Investiture and Connection define the Physical laws of thermodynamics and electromagnetism in the Cosmere, which allows for altering them via the magic systems. I also believe that Brandon means for Investiture to follow similar laws in doing so. So this all fits from a meta perspective, as well.

 

[Lightspine]

25 minutes ago, Leuthie said:

Keep in mind, Odium's color seems to be a "burning" gold. The knife used to kill Jezrien was a light gold. A godmetal or godmetal alloy as the Investiture conductor with the sapphire gem as the storage device.

It's quite possible that there is some potential energy (potential Investiture?) difference that caused the sapphire to pull the high potential Cognitive Shadow that is Jezrien into itself. The material of the knife, how it was Connected to the gem, how it was Connected to the wielder and how the Connection was made to the target all provided a conduit between the shell of Jezriel (high potential) and the gem (low potential).

Dalinar was able to use a large, perfect ruby to capture Nergaoul. The gem by itself was doing no pulling because there was no Connection. Dalinar had an existing Connection to Nergaoul, pulled on this Connection while holding the stone, and transferred that Connection to the gem using his Bondsmith Connection to the powers provided by the Stormfather

Connection is the key term here. From what we've seen, in the Cosmere, physical phenomena are secondary effects to Connection and Investiture. Connection DEFINES Physical phenomena, allowing those phenomena to be altered by use of Investiture: a Windrunner Lashing changes the direction of effect of gravity (a secondary Physical phenomena that normally Connects Physical objects to the planet they're on) using Stormlight (Investiture) and a Bond (Connection) to a Spren (the Cognitive aspect of a Physical or phenomena).

It's quite possible that gems that aren't holding Investiture are considered to be in low potential, and creating a Connection allows high potential (high Investiture).

 

BTW, Stormlight isn't consumed. The relationship between Investiture, Energy and Matter is a fully conservative one. Investiture moves between one place, state or Realm and another, it is neither lost nor gained. I would postulate that the act of Healing, for instance, uses the innate Investiture of the object being Healed first. This creates a low potential state must be filled in by more Investiture for the action to continue. The Connection created by the Healing creates a conduit for Stormlight (where there is Stormlight there is a very high potential) to fill in the Investiture being used for the action. This shouldn't be considered consumption, as the "used" Investiture is being transferred to the Spiritual Realm to create the desired change. On Roshar, Honor's Perpendicularity creates a Connection between the Spiritual Realm and Physical to allow raw Investiture to be transferred in the form of Stormlight. Normally, this Perpendicularity is located in the Storm. The remnants of the Shard of Honor are creating the difference in potential that powers this whole cycle.

I wish I could organize all that better. In any case, I like it.

 

I do believe that Investiture and Connection define the Physical laws of thermodynamics and electromagnetism in the Cosmere, which allows for altering them via the magic systems. I also believe that Brandon means for Investiture to follow similar laws in doing so. So this all fits from a meta perspective, as well.

 

You make a really good point here! I think that for my circuit analogy, your theory here would mean that Connection is analogous to the wires. I'm on board with that!

As for stormlight being consumed or not though, I agree with you in part. I think that investure should almost always be conserved, just like mass is in our universe. However, conservation of matter is really just an illusion that results from the difficulty of converting mass into other forms of energy. While it is true for most processes, there are some few (namely nuclear reactions) which can decrease the amount of mass. The same could be true for stormlight—although normally conserved, some special processes might convert it from magical investure into more mundane energy, like that required to heal a body.

Also, I just made an edit to my post! I realized that I might have overlooked a really simple explanation for why larger gemstones can withdraw stormlight from smaller ones. Tl;DR is that I treat it like gas in containers of different sizes, meaning it will diffuse along a pressure gradient.

[Realmatic Shadow]

10 hours ago, Lightspine said:

I think that investure should almost always be conserved, just like mass is in our universe. However, conservation of matter is really just an illusion that results from the difficulty of converting mass into other forms of energy.

Conservation of mass is basically just applying conservation of energy in a system where matter isn't transformed into energy, and I think a similar line can be drawn with conservation of Investiture. 

11 hours ago, Lightspine said:

Also, I just made an edit to my post! I realized that I might have overlooked a really simple explanation for why larger gemstones can withdraw stormlight from smaller ones. TL;DR is that I treat it like gas in containers of different sizes, meaning it will diffuse along a pressure gradient.

Given how Stormlight is describes as gaseous, with many analogies drawn in the text, I'm quite surprised no one drew this connection earlier, and that I couldn't either (am studying stuff to do with gases and pressure currently, so should really be on the forefront of my mind). Does the Stormlight stop transferring between the smaller and larger gemstone in a consistent manner, relative to their sizes and cuts, that can be used to determine more about the exact 'vacuum' in the larger gemstone that draws in Light from the smaller? 

[Lightspine]

9 hours ago, Realmatic Shadow said:

Conservation of mass is basically just applying conservation of energy in a system where matter isn't transformed into energy, and I think a similar line can be drawn with conservation of Investiture. 

21 hours ago, Lightspine said:

That's exactly what I meant! Sorry if I wasn't very clear, you definitely put it more succinctly.

9 hours ago, Realmatic Shadow said:

Given how Stormlight is describes as gaseous, with many analogies drawn in the text, I'm quite surprised no one drew this connection earlier, and that I couldn't either (am studying stuff to do with gases and pressure currently, so should really be on the forefront of my mind). Does the Stormlight stop transferring between the smaller and larger gemstone in a consistent manner, relative to their sizes and cuts, that can be used to determine more about the exact 'vacuum' in the larger gemstone that draws in Light from the smaller? 

Definitely something I want to know as well. I don't think we have much information in this department as of now.