Burning aluminum

[Oversleep]

Does burned aluminum work in a flash, burning out itself superfast? That's the assumption I have been working with so far and I'm not sure it's right.

We know it destroys other metals and duraluminum does burn out with other metals, so WRONG! Duraluminum does not burn out with other metals!:

There's this WoB but it's paraphrased:

Quote

Andrew the Great

What benefit does an aluminum savant get?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

(After a short period of laughing)

Is it even possible to become an aluminum savant? You'd have to be burning aluminum consistently, and aluminum just kind of goes away in a burst.... After that, he discussed how being an aluminum Misting will likely be considered a handicap in the Mistborn RPG because you can't pick up other Allomantic abilities.

source

Is it mentioned in the books?

Edited June 20, 2017 by Oversleep

[Calderis he/him]

The only instances we see in the books make it appear so. I think it may just have an exceptionally high burn rate though, and can take roughly an equal amount of other metals with it.

For example, if you swallowed a ring that had been used as a metalmind, I think you'd need a roughly equal amount of aluminum as the ring to completely burn it away. I think a vial would only burn away a small portion of the ring itself. 

Considering we've only seen a very small amount of aluminum used, to burn away a vial or two of total metal flakes, I think assessing the burn rate is beyond the information we have. 

[The One Who Connects he/him]

We know that Chromium takes time to drain stuff like Metalminds, so I imagine that Aluminum would do the same. Vin was only given a small amount in TFE, so we can't really say

I think that it burns disproportionately fast, allowing you to theoretically get more "power" out of it, in this case, draining everything in your reserves in a flash.

[+Extesian he/him]

Yeah I can only compare to chromium which does take time, but not much

Quote

KAYMYTH

OK, so in the signing line, I asked the question about chromium vs a Compounder with both invested and uninvested metals in both their stomach and piercings.

BRANDON SANDERSON

1) Yes, the piercings will get burned off.

2) The noninvested metals go before the invested ones. He said that because invested metals are harder to effect, it takes a little extra time and effort to get them to burn off. So a Leecher trying to clean out a Compounder would have to get a good grip and hang on for a few seconds.

3) Chromium burns about as quickly as duralumin, so if you're trying to burn off a lot of metals, it is possible to run out of chromium before your target is clean. This would probably only be an issue when dealing with larger pieces (like jewelry) rather than your standard metal-flakes-in-the-stomach deal.

I expect aluminum would work the same way, very fast but not instantly. But that's all I could find. 

[Oversleep]

24 minutes ago, Spoolofwhool said:

My opinion is that aluminum and duralumin affect themselves, along with other metals. So burning aluminum destroys your aluminum reserves at the same time it is being burnt, so it disappears really quickly, and duralumin increases its own burn speed, which then causes a positive feedback to increase its burn speed again, etc, until it's gone in a moment. 

See the edit to main post.

[+Lewis Nethur He/Him]

I believe that burning aluminum does remove an allomancer's aluminum reserves (though not instantaneously) based on the following points:

1. Burning aluminum removes foreign metals and Investitures from the body, and since aluminum isn't used in any biological processes, it would be recognized as a foreign substance, and therefore be removed.  (some scientists theorize that rare bacteria that live near "cool" vents in the ocean may be able to metabolize and produce elemental aluminum, which is totally wild and may be how ralkalest is harvested on Sel, but in general, aluminum just doesn't occur in nature or biology.)
2. Based on the Ars Arcanum, being attacked with chromium by a leecher should wipe both your aluminum and chromium stores.  I would think it logically follows that using aluminum on yourself would do precisely the same thing.
3. Aluminum doesn't remove all of your metal stores instantly, it just removes them rapidly.  A finite amount of aluminum can only remove a finite amount of foreign metal/Investiture; not exactly a supporting argument, but an important clarifying point that I've seen people get confused over in the past.  If a mistborn swallows 1 kilogram of atium, it's unreasonable to assume that burning 1 microgram of aluminum would wipe out their stores.

I propose the following model:

1. If an allomancer burns aluminum at a rate of 'A' grams/second to be supplied with 'B' units of Preservation's (Harmony's) Investiture/second -
2. They remove foreign metal/Investiture from their body at a rate of Y grams-of-metal/second and Z units-of-Investiture/second.
3. Furthermore, the order in which metals and Investitures are removed from the body are determined by a multidimensional relationship based on Cognitive and Spiritual perception of how "foreign" each material/Investiture is, how intrusive/damaging each material/Investiture is, and how easily removed each material/Investiture is.  For example if you had only a small amount of aluminum to burn, and had swallowed a bunch of iron and pewter, then pewter, being generally more poisonous than iron and possessing a much faster natural burn rate, would typically be removed first (or possibly just removed in disproportionately greater quantities, IE: you remove 50% of your pewter store, and 10% of your iron stores)  Whereas an Invested hemalurgic spike in an Inquisitor's neck that is literally keeping them alive would be attacked much less if at all.  If you were being withered by a shade immediately after being forcibly endowed with Breath, burning aluminum would prioritize reversing the damage caused by the shade over dispersing any unwanted Breath.
4. Aluminum, being more-or-less biologically inert, would be removed from the body after most (all?) other allomantic metals/foreign Investitures.  I haven't checked the LD50 dosages for the allomantic metals, but off the top of my head, I believe aluminum is less poisonous than most of the other metals on a gram-for-gram basis.  Please feel free to fact-check/research this and add as necessary.  Gold might be more inert, can't remember.

I invite knitpicking, hole-poking, and additional research, as I'm too tired at the moment to hunt down all the supporting citations. 

Edited June 21, 2017 by hwiles