Stormlight/Investiture as Impulse

[u/According_Still_1085]

So Im reading Storm Light Archives for the the first time as I came to scene where Sigzil is trying to test Kalidan's lashing abilities. In the book, they try to puzzle over how to quantify stormlight. This got me thinking, can Stormlight, and thus, investiture be measured using impulse? Its established that heavier an object is the quicker it falls and that more storm-light allows for a full lashing to last longer. Based on this, we can devise the equation:

S = f/t

Where S equtes stormlight, f denotes force, and t represents time.

If we were to apply SI units, this would translate over to stormlight being measure in Newtons-Seconds which also happens to be metric used for impulse in physics. Basically, just force applied over a specific period of time.

Im still a little speculative of this theory because is Mistborn era 2, investure is described as more energy (force over distance/heat) by VenDell.

Did anyone else have this thought?

[u/Heavy_Sympathy7892]

Nope. You are taking it in a wrong way. First of all, impulse is change in momentum. And heavier objects fall at same time in vacuum, its only drag force which slows them in other medium. And the relation would definately not be a linear. Also stormlight is different thing, it behaves differently for different people. You would see in Rhythm of War.

[u/icantrhinkofanything → u/Heavy_Sympathy7892]

I think op meant sooner. A heavy object stays attached only for a short time and light object would stay attached for longer using the same amount of Stormlight.

[u/JaguarMammoth6231]

Its established that heavier an object is the quicker it falls

Where did you get this? Is it from the books?

Even if that's true, I don't understand why you say S=f/t. And in any case the units of F/t would not be N•s but N/s which is not anything particularly useful.

I would expect the units to be those of energy.

[u/According_Still_1085 → u/JaguarMammoth6231]

Yeah, I confused what impulse actually is. As for the time correlation, I got that from pages 150 and 152 of words of radiance. On 150 where Rock is hanging from a stone Kaladin lashed to the wall, Sigzil says "'Twenty seconds, not very long'" (I'm kind of rewording the exact quote). Later on page 152, where Kalidan had just lashed a stone, Sizil notes that it adhered for "'Well over a minute, I counted 87 second'" (again, Im rewording the exact quote).

[u/ejdj1011]

Nah, the lens we see in Mistborn (Investiture is energy) is the correct one.

Energy can be used to perform work. Work is force times distance. That is, the force of a Lashing times the distance the object moves.

Alternatively, energy can be converted to different forms. The energy within the Stormlight is transferred into kinetic energy of the object being Lashed.

[u/GradientForce]

I think it'd be better to measure it as a frequency, matches with the tones and amplitude multipliers of adding additional lashings

[u/aiar-viess]

Investiture is the emulsifier of the realms. It makes the realms overlap, allowing for aspects of one to affect another.

When using investiture aligned with a shard, you are technically becoming both physically, cognitively, and spiritually closer to that shard, which is why the feeling of stormlight is described as an impulse to action.

In any case, surgebinding can be better described as the overlapping of the physical and cognitive, and using the aspects of the cognitive to cause real manifestations on the physical. The cognitive realm is defined by the way things perceive themselves and how they are perceived by others. By changing this perception and overlapping it with the physical, this change in perception manifests physically. For example with gravitation, you change the way an object/person perceives down (this is how we are first introduced to this surge, by describing how it feels as if your down direction is now different) and then this change in how down is perceived manifests physically as that object/person falling to another direction. All the surges (to an extent) follow this logic.

[u/According_Still_1085]

Sorry guys, I also got it mixed up. Impulse in the integral of a force over time graph, its the product of change in force and time. Additionally, yeah, its a massive simplification. I kind-off just chose the simplest most straightforward application of stormlight to analyse.

[u/According_Still_1085]

Also, Im only like 180 pages into Words of Radiance. So far I've only read Mistborn (eras one and two) and the way of kings. My understanding of Cosmere is still quite iffy so I appreciate the clarification