McAnally's (The Community Pub) > Author Craft
Electricity, Electromagnetism, Bioelectric fields, Need realism
Nicodemus Carpenter:
--- Quote from: Quantus on May 26, 2011, 02:56:30 PM ---The eel's entire organ structure is packed into the head, and heavily insulated. The other 80% is made up of basic body structure and three electricity generating muscle bundles that control the flow of sodium within in such a way to generate bursts of electricity, basically like a battery. There is no path for the electric discharge through the skull, and the rest of the tissues are built to survive its own power levels without harm.
Yes, in theory. The Echidna Family, (most notably the platypus) are teh only known mammals to have the ability. The water makes for a far better conductor than air, but thats a problem of scale not design, and you are throwing scale out the window a bit for this anyway. Its also worth noting that the same gene responsible for electrolocation in the facial skin of sharks is present and actively affecting facial features in humans.
Again, yes in theory, but the realism of the actual energy requirements would be stretching realism. Brain, Heart, Or Massive tissue damage. Brain and heart are both very fragile electrical systems that can be shorted out. The last requires extremely high Current (the amount of electrons in flow) as opposed to current (the pressure difference that is causing them to move.
Remember: high current is what causes the heat, high voltage is what lets it jump.
Assuming the power level is there, sure, but they would need to be modified to spin the electricity around material properly. The basic rule thumb (hehe, punny) is that if you make a phonzy thumb, the electricity needs to spin in the direction of your fingers to create a magnetic field in the direction of your thumb, and vice verse.
The short answer is that when the molecules within the material all align in one direction, all their individual charges add up to a big one, and that passing electricity around/through a material is one way to accomplish that alignment. you'll need wikipedia for a long answer.
Its not a matter of scale, its about the type of flow. All electricity really is is an imbalance of electrons in a bunch of molecules, moving to try to even back out again, just like an imbalance of water levels will flow through a tube to try to level out. Static electricity is when a natural buildup of charges on one side of a barrier (usually air) breaks through and reaches equilibrium in a shot. Current (which just means electric flow) occurs when the flow is slowed down, or else when something is maintaining the imbalance (like continued chemical reactions inside a battery).
What I think you meant by "Current Electricity" though is AC power, what you get out of the wall. That mean alternating current, and is different from DC current (ie. static electricity, battery power, Eels, etc) in that it reverses direction back and forth. DC power always flows in one direction, and thus always requires a complete loop. AC power is created using rotating magnetic fields, and as a result shifts direction back and forth at high speed, which gives it some differing properties. The advantages of one vs the other have been argued literally since it was invented (see Telsa, Edison and the War of the Currents), but for your purposes there is one big thing: DC Current requires a return loop, which is why tasers shoot two wires; AC can flow as long as you are in contact to the Earth (termed "grounded") which can soak up all the electricity you could ever create; the electrocuting water cannons they use for crowd control work on AC. DC can use ground as the return path instead of a 2nd wire, but its trickier.
Assuming they could make the voltage level theyd need (around 1000V/mm iirc), mini-lightning effects would be possible so long as he can create a loop. So from finger to finger would work, but would only use the tissues in his hands. Hand to hand could work, but then the current is using a path through his chest/heart, which may make for a fun danger, but something he could train to overcome i expect (eels have remarkable control of power intensity and flow).
People get caught up in the dietary needs of superpowers, and forget that its not a straight calorie mechanism. For an Eel-man to generate the equivalent of a 1000 calories of electricity, he wouldn't necessarily need to have consumed enough eggs to equal that energy and then digest it in the same way you would for blood-sugar. Instead, he'd need to make sure his diet included the massive amounts of sodium and whatever other chemicals are present in the biological battery tissues inside him. Superman is solar powered, which is why he can lift buildings without consuming a cattle farm every day; it's a completely different biological method and system.
--- End quote ---
I... I think I love you! Checking out the war of the currents now.
For clarification's sake, the technology used to create these guys was advanced far beyond anything we can imagine today, Nanomachines on the subatomic scale for starters. However, there had already been one apocolyptic-scale loss of information, so the uses they were putting this technology to was comparatively primitive. If this were set in the Star Wars universe, it would be something akin to the sandpeople of tatooine somehow discovering the cloning facilities from the episode two we all wish had never existed.
Because of this, I'm not terribly concerned with energy generation or output. I'm also figuring that the mechanisms behind his gauntlets is similarly advanced, allowing for much greater efficiency than we could produce today.
Lord Rae:
Something interesting that may or may not be of any use to you...
There is an anime called Darker than Black (Available on netflix if you have the streaming service) where the main character has the ability to kill with electric current. He uses a dagger fitted to a thin metal cable that he throws at people either wrapping them up or pumping in current if they get stabbed. He gets stumped a few times by people who know about him and wear thick rubber boots. Its got a fantastic concept for the show and how people use powers but since its already taken maybe it would give you a few ideas about how it got used in various situations. Its not always 100% accurate but it might be something to stir your ideas up.
Nickeris86:
There is a YA book called The Monster Blood Tattoo, it the world setting there are monster hunters that undergo a rather horrific surgery that allows them to channel electricity like an eel. The one that we meet in the novel fights with a long flexible metal rod that she would strike out with it and send a current through the rod.
comprex:
--- Quote from: Nickeris86 on June 05, 2011, 06:23:50 PM ---There is a YA book called The Monster Blood Tattoo, it the world setting there are monster hunters that undergo a rather horrific surgery that allows them to channel electricity like an eel. The one that we meet in the novel fights with a long flexible metal rod that she would strike out with it and send a current through the rod.
--- End quote ---
Using ground as the return path?
Nickeris86:
--- Quote from: comprex on June 05, 2011, 07:01:45 PM ---Using ground as the return path?
--- End quote ---
it doesn't state but that would make since i guess.
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
[*] Previous page
Go to full version