My knowledge of Electro-Magnets is pretty poor but as already stated if we had our own personal Electro-Magnetic field (For the love of all thats HOLY dont call it Chi or bad things will happen) wouldn't we short out PC's or be immune to electricity ?
The way Alfheim was talking about it , it sounded as if he was manipulating a reasonably large sum of energy. Just to simply fling himself across a room or increase his body temp ?
Anway would it be theoretically possible to enhance our natural EM field somehow ? Even manipulate it ? (Although I have a feeling doing so would cause ones brain to fry)
We already can manipulate it, I'm not sure if EM would be the way that we "enhanced it" however, as EM fields are more of a side effect to general neural processing. And, like By Crom was saying, its a matter of intensities.
As one neuron sends a signal to another, it is passed as an electric charge down what is called an axon to the synapse, where one cell's "arm" (the axon) meets the next cell (at it's dendrite). As the electrical signal is passed from one neuron to the next, there are what are known as "brainwaves" formed by the neural activity.
So, pretend there is a place in your brain that processes faces specifically (there is). When you look at a face, the neurons in that part of the brain will begin to fire (re: produce the electric signal and send it to it's connected neurons). Since brain cells can only fire at one intensity (ie, it is always the same strength) and only increase or decrease their rate of fire (there is always some amount of fire though) there is a change in the electrical charge in the localized facial processing part. A "brainwave" is formed by activation or inhibition in one part of the brain, and is directly caused by the increase or decrease in activity of neurons in that part of the brain.
So, by thinking or processing something, you are affecting your EM fields. How is that for a glib answer
To be honest, electromagnetic fields, as far as I know, are really not all that important to human experience. While at the level of the neuron or of the molecule, they are very important, they are never really strong enough to affect more than the molecular or cellular level. To us, it is almost better to understand them as byproducts of molecular and biological processes, not the initiators or causes for such things.
... Hopefully thats mostly right...
__________________ yes, a million times yes
Last edited by tsilamini on Jan 15th, 2007 at 08:48 PM
When we process these things it causes a charge between the various neurons etc. This charge is always at a certain level but can never get really any higher (On the flipside though it can get lower) . The charge itself is what causes our natural Em field.
Real world physics and calculations can only come into play when:
A) The comics do not give an explanation already. The Flash didn't go twenty seven point three billion times the speed of light. He went JUST under light speed - we are told this.
and
B) The feat happening obeys the laws of physics.
How many pounds per square inch do characters exert when they punch through reality?
Seriously. Calculate the required amount of force to punch a hole in spacetime.
An example why real world physics can't be used in comics is the Hulk.
If real world physics were applied, well over half of his feats would be void.
When he braced the 150 billion ton mountain, it would have driven him into the ground like a hammer and a nail, or the mountain would have crumbled around him. He did not cover or support enough surface area.
Destroying a dimension by thunderclapping....
Braking a island from its foundation and "swimming" it to a continent would be impossible.
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God put me on earth to accomplish a certain amount of things. Right now I am so far behind I will never die.
Gender: Male Location: On a rock, floating through space..
*As a philosopher in our part of the world once said: 'The artifacts of a sufficiently advanced extraterrestrial civilization would be indistinguishable from magic.'
-Devi Sukhavati, an Indian character in Carl Sagan's Contact, 1985
Part II, "The Machine", Chapter 11, "The World Message Consortium"
Allow me to explain a little about Axon's its not really an electro magnetic Field that does the work. A small amount of magnetism is created when any current is passed through a conductor. The axon itself though is depolarised and it is current (an electrical signal) transfers the signal to the synapse. At the synapse chemical messengers like Gabba and ACh are released and these pass the signal to other neurones.The chemical messenger or neuro transmitters are broken down by esterases.
Now on Chi bizarrely (and I would love to find a link) has been tracked (or something has) using a heat camera when summoned by practitioners of Quigong. The area iron shirt Quigong experts make hard has been found to be warmer. It is supposed this is a physiological response where connective tissue has become packed with Oxygen making it harder. Although the exact nature is supposition.
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herd behavior is a comical thing.
Last edited by Whirly on Jan 16th, 2007 at 05:29 PM
Gender: Male Location: On a rock, floating through space..
Re: Real Physics Vs. Comic Physics
Comic book physics HAVE to be based on real physics - otherwise we would not be able to understand what we read. If up was down, and left was right, and blue was yellow and water dry... we would never be able to make sense of it, as we would not understand the new rules!
All comic book physics do is bend real physics a bit, in order to make their stories and their characters more fantastic, more exciting - more popular, therefore (and therefore more profitable, of course. After all, who wants to read about a man who CAN'T dodge bullets? ).
A book was written about comic book physics called The Physics of Superheroes by James Kakalios
KMC Community Forums
Jan 15th, 2007 08:21 PM
Ready for a roundhouse kick?
