Some musing from my sick brain :-)

[Christer Jacobsson]

As Salaam Aleikum!

I've been cut off from this ng since 2009-12-31 when my ISP dropped
their NNTP server, so I had to change it to nntp.aioe.org - a NNTP
server that's not censored and allow you to access their nntp server
with SSL, thereby ensuring your privacy.

I know about some funny foreshadowings in the WoT and Dune books:

First a note about some foreahadowing.

In "Dune" there is a passage that reads

<$quote>

"'you like this one', she said, It goes, Don't count a human dead until
you've seen his body. And even
then you can make a mistake". This fits nicely what Master Norry said in
WH, A Cup Of Tea, p.214:

<$quote<

Master Norry drops this
reply in his conversation with Elayne (WH, A Cup Of Tea, p.214):

"From what I saw of him, my Lady," he said slowly, "I myself would
not believe him dead unless I sat three days with the corpse."

</$ quote>

Another item is the matter of the Portal Stone, used in TGH, when some
of the main Good Gals/Guys(tm) uses a Portal Stone to travel to Falme.
While using using the Portal Stone in Carhien, the travellers
experiences a multitude of fates that they are to meet, or they MIGHT
meet. This smacks like the Many Worlds interpretation in quantum
physics, i.e. that when a quantum event have two outcomes, that the one
event you observe will put you into an Universe that's consistent with
your choice and the other will branch off into a parallell Universe
where THAT event didn't occur. It seems to me when the Good
Guys/Gals(tm) uses the Portal Stone to travel to Falme, they end up in a
parallell Universe where grolms exist in Randland but they didn't exist
in the Randland they travelled from. Now they managed to travel back to
their current Universe where grolms didn't exist in Randland proper but
only in the continent occupied by the Seanchan Empire.

And lastly an observation about the OP:

We know that the OP can couple to the electromagnetic force: forming
lightning bolts from thin air (no thunderheads in the sky) implies that
the Weave that creates the lightning bolts must interact with the
electromagnetic force. If this is the case, should not the OP be able to
couple to the other three forces in physics, namely gravitation, strong
nuclear force and weak nuclear force? I think that we have seen the OP
couple to the gravity force when one of the Forsaken hits Rand with a
multiple-Gee gravitational field when he battles said Forsaken at the
end of TDR. Now IF the OP can couple with the weak and strong nuclear
force, you can get some really interesting and destructive Weaves out of
this. For example, suppose one of the Good Gals/Guys(tm) create a Weave
that will enhance the weak nuclear force in one litre of plain water.
The result? With the enhanced weak nuclear force, room-temperature
fusion would be achieved and that single litre of water would yield an
explosive force in the high-megaton range. Veeeeery nice if you have to
destroy some huge bunch of Trollocs and Fades en masse on the
battlefield. Enhanging the strong nuclear force (SNF) can give you some
very spectactular events. Take a lump of uranium (0.7% U-235, 99.3&
U-238) and increase the SNF a hundrefold. The result? Instant explosive
fission in the lumop of natural uranium in the 1-100 kT interval, making
an innocent piece of natural uranium into a core of a fission weapon
with a high yield without the hassle of explosive lenses to compress the
piece of uranium to supercriticality: a local hundredfold increase in
the SNF would bring a 10-kile bit of ordinary uranium to
supercriticality, thereby starting a massive fission explosive chain
reaction. A Weave very nice to have on the battlefield: let Mat put a
projectile of uranium in one of his Dragons, fire it towards the enemy
and when the projectile reaches the desired altitude and location, let a
Sister/Ash'aman hit it with a SNF-enhancing Weave. The result? An
explosion in the 1-100 kiloton range which would totally wipe out the
attacking force. Veeery nice :-)


Cul8er alligator!
gaea - feminist & chunkawakan

[TB]

Post by Christer Jacobsson
As Salaam Aleikum!
We know that the OP can couple to the electromagnetic force: forming
lightning bolts from thin air (no thunderheads in the sky) implies that
the Weave that creates the lightning bolts must interact with the
electromagnetic force. If this is the case, should not the OP be able to
couple to the other three forces in physics, namely gravitation, strong
nuclear force and weak nuclear force? I think that we have seen the OP
couple to the gravity force when one of the Forsaken hits Rand with a
multiple-Gee gravitational field when he battles said Forsaken at the
end of TDR. Now IF the OP can couple with the weak and strong nuclear
force, you can get some really interesting and destructive Weaves out of
this. For example, suppose one of the Good Gals/Guys(tm) create a Weave
that will enhance the weak nuclear force in one litre of plain water.
The result? With the enhanced weak nuclear force, room-temperature
fusion would be achieved and that single litre of water would yield an
explosive force in the high-megaton range. Veeeeery nice if you have to
destroy some huge bunch of Trollocs and Fades en masse on the
battlefield. Enhanging the strong nuclear force (SNF) can give you some
very spectactular events. Take a lump of uranium (0.7% U-235, 99.3&
U-238) and increase the SNF a hundrefold. The result? Instant explosive
fission in the lumop of natural uranium in the 1-100 kT interval, making
an innocent piece of natural uranium into a core of a fission weapon
with a high yield without the hassle of explosive lenses to compress the
piece of uranium to supercriticality: a local hundredfold increase in
the SNF would bring a 10-kile bit of ordinary uranium to
supercriticality, thereby starting a massive fission explosive chain
reaction. A Weave very nice to have on the battlefield: let Mat put a
projectile of uranium in one of his Dragons, fire it towards the enemy
and when the projectile reaches the desired altitude and location, let a
Sister/Ash'aman hit it with a SNF-enhancing Weave. The result? An
explosion in the 1-100 kiloton range which would totally wipe out the
attacking force. Veeery nice :-)

Where would Mat get uranium, and how would he know of its explosive
properties? All his military knowledge is from after the Breaking.

[Christer Jacobsson]

Post by TB

Post by Christer Jacobsson
As Salaam Aleikum!
We know that the OP can couple to the electromagnetic force: forming
lightning bolts from thin air (no thunderheads in the sky) implies that
the Weave that creates the lightning bolts must interact with the
electromagnetic force. If this is the case, should not the OP be able to
couple to the other three forces in physics, namely gravitation, strong
nuclear force and weak nuclear force? I think that we have seen the OP
couple to the gravity force when one of the Forsaken hits Rand with a
multiple-Gee gravitational field when he battles said Forsaken at the
end of TDR. Now IF the OP can couple with the weak and strong nuclear
force, you can get some really interesting and destructive Weaves out of
this. For example, suppose one of the Good Gals/Guys(tm) create a Weave
that will enhance the weak nuclear force in one litre of plain water.
The result? With the enhanced weak nuclear force, room-temperature
fusion would be achieved and that single litre of water would yield an
explosive force in the high-megaton range. Veeeeery nice if you have to
destroy some huge bunch of Trollocs and Fades en masse on the
battlefield. Enhanging the strong nuclear force (SNF) can give you some
very spectactular events. Take a lump of uranium (0.7% U-235, 99.3&
U-238) and increase the SNF a hundrefold. The result? Instant explosive
fission in the lumop of natural uranium in the 1-100 kT interval, making
an innocent piece of natural uranium into a core of a fission weapon
with a high yield without the hassle of explosive lenses to compress the
piece of uranium to supercriticality: a local hundredfold increase in
the SNF would bring a 10-kile bit of ordinary uranium to
supercriticality, thereby starting a massive fission explosive chain
reaction. A Weave very nice to have on the battlefield: let Mat put a
projectile of uranium in one of his Dragons, fire it towards the enemy
and when the projectile reaches the desired altitude and location, let a
Sister/Ash'aman hit it with a SNF-enhancing Weave. The result? An
explosion in the 1-100 kiloton range which would totally wipe out the
attacking force. Veeery nice :-)

Where would Mat get uranium, and how would he know of its explosive
properties? All his military knowledge is from after the Breaking.

You are correct in this as the situation now stands. But what
information from the AoL may be hidden in the 13th Depository of the
Tower ibrary (which I fervently hope Eg will derate from Ultimate Secret
to plain Unclassified)? Perhaps some introductory and andvanced texts in
physics and nuclear physics are extant in the 13th depository, and said
text will mention the principles and applications of nuclear fission.
Now suppose that this information exist plus the information I wlll
mention below, and Eg & Co (the Wondergirls and Wonderboys (tm) ) gets
hold of said information.

First we have the problem of locating uranium ore. Any competent book on
natural science for K7-K9 would mention various minerals, and their
contents. In this context, pitchblende would definitely be mentioned as
this is THE ore one's searching for if one are searching for mineable
deposits of uranium. On a side note here, depleted uranium metal
(almost-pure U238) have numerous applications in today's industy and
commerce: small and compact counterweights and other application when
one wants a piece of metal that are cheap and DENSE - depleted uranium
fits the bill perfectly as it is very cheap compared with for example
tungsten, and it's density is about 19 grams per cubic centimeter. Now
we KNOW that Eg is very strong in Earth, so if she is given information
of the uranium contents of pitchblende, she should be able to (1) locate
such deposits and (2) as a first step extract the uranium from the ore.
Next would be the separation of the two domninant uranium isotopes
namely U238 (99.3%) and U235 (0.7%), but if Eg is as strong in Earth as
TGH hinted at, she should be able to separate the isotopes into two
piles, the bigger one containing U238 and smaller one containing U235.

Now that the TAS have almost-pure U235 and have it stored in such a way
that each lump is undercritical, the making of a simple fission weapon
would be quite easy even if it's workings and description are only in a
K9-K12 textbook on physics. What I'm thinking of here are the childishly
simple cannon-bomb that was dropped over Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 0815 local
time and which killed about a quarter of a million people, either
directly or over the following ten years - and there are STILL people
from Hiroshima at the time of the bombing that are dying today! A cannon
bomb can be described thusly. Take a gun barrel that will allow the
uranium projectile to be accelerated to a speed of about 1000 m/s. Next,
weld the major part of the U235 at the top of the gun barrel - in this
case a sphere with a hole drilled into it that will fit with the uranium
projectile that's being shot from the bottom of the gun barrel. The
projectile would be machined to fit exactly inside the hole in the
spherical U235 main body, and it will be seated on the upper end of the
driving charge. If you are aiming for maximum efficience, the gunpower
should be smokeless gunpower, but if you are seeking an already-extant
gunpowder that is in use in Randland now, you could use the time-honored
black powder instead. You lose yield if you must use black powder a the
driving charge, but what the hell - if the bomb yield would have been in
the 10+ kT range with smokeless powder but only 0.1-1 kT with a black
powder charge, so what? Dropping it over the advancing trollocs&Fades
would wreak huge destruction, and if you can't drop the bomb but know
WHERE the Trolloc army will pass, you can simply bury it in the ground
and setting it off by physical means (a tripwire that would ignite a
short lenght of blackpowder fuse that in turn would ignite the
blackpowder driver charge in the bomb), or by a weave of Fire directed
at the blackpowder charge in the bomb. If a Sister or Ash'aman could
create a Weave that would reflect back escaping neutrons from the
fissioning mass of U235 (probably a Air of Fire weave or a combo of
Air/Fire), so much the better, you would get very much more bang for the
buck this way, perhaps upgrading the weapon from a 0.1-1kT yield to
perhaps 50-100kT yield.

So my 0.5*10**2SEK opinion is that if info of this type of bomb and it's
physics (K9-K19 level) exists in the 13th Depository, and that
references to atom bomb also exists - either in the 13th depository
itself, in the main Tower library or in the possession of a Brown sister
- Eg&Co can go ahead of constructing the crude cannon bomb model en
masse. Perhaps they would test fire the first bomb assembly t for
ascertaining that their design was correct. If it explodes, even with a
yield of only .1-1Kt, they could then go into mass producing this simple
nuclear bomb. They will definitely need them at Tarmon Gaidon, if they
want to make any signifant dents in the onrushing trolloc/fade hordes.
But it WOULD be nice if Rand should remember the Trolloc-killing Weave
he used in the Stone Of Tear that hunted down and killed every last
Trolloc that was present in the fortress at that time. It searched every
nook and cranny of the Stone and waxed ALL trollocs&Fades present. Loose
THAT weave on the battlefield and Rand - or some other Ash'aman or
Sister who have learned of this Weawe - could kill a HUGE amount of
Trollocs&Fades, and we are talking of killing trollocs&Fades on a
100,000 - 1,000,000 scale here for each loosened Weave which I assume is
somehow self-limiting, i.e. it will not expand over the whole Arda and
killing off every Trolloc and Fades that exist, leaving the world free
of these evil characters. The Trollock&Fade-killing Weave in the Stone
was self-limiting in that it didn't reach outside the Stone but worked
perfectly inside this massive and many-roomed building.


Cul8er alligator!
gaea - feminist & chunkawakan

[TB]

Post by Christer Jacobsson

Post by TB

Post by Christer Jacobsson
As Salaam Aleikum!
We know that the OP can couple to the electromagnetic force: forming
lightning bolts from thin air (no thunderheads in the sky) implies that
the Weave that creates the lightning bolts must interact with the
electromagnetic force. If this is the case, should not the OP be able to
couple to the other three forces in physics, namely gravitation, strong
nuclear force and weak nuclear force? I think that we have seen the OP
couple to the gravity force when one of the Forsaken hits Rand with a
multiple-Gee gravitational field when he battles said Forsaken at the
end of TDR. Now IF the OP can couple with the weak and strong nuclear
force, you can get some really interesting and destructive Weaves out of
this. For example, suppose one of the Good Gals/Guys(tm) create a Weave
that will enhance the weak nuclear force in one litre of plain water.
The result? With the enhanced weak nuclear force, room-temperature
fusion would be achieved and that single litre of water would yield an
explosive force in the high-megaton range. Veeeeery nice if you have to
destroy some huge bunch of Trollocs and Fades en masse on the
battlefield. Enhanging the strong nuclear force (SNF) can give you some
very spectactular events. Take a lump of uranium (0.7% U-235, 99.3&
U-238) and increase the SNF a hundrefold. The result? Instant explosive
fission in the lumop of natural uranium in the 1-100 kT interval, making
an innocent piece of natural uranium into a core of a fission weapon
with a high yield without the hassle of explosive lenses to compress the
piece of uranium to supercriticality: a local hundredfold increase in
the SNF would bring a 10-kile bit of ordinary uranium to
supercriticality, thereby starting a massive fission explosive chain
reaction. A Weave very nice to have on the battlefield: let Mat put a
projectile of uranium in one of his Dragons, fire it towards the enemy
and when the projectile reaches the desired altitude and location, let a
Sister/Ash'aman hit it with a SNF-enhancing Weave. The result? An
explosion in the 1-100 kiloton range which would totally wipe out the
attacking force. Veeery nice :-)

Where would Mat get uranium, and how would he know of its explosive
properties?  All his military knowledge is from after the Breaking.

You are correct in this as the situation now stands. But what
information from the AoL may be hidden in the 13th Depository of the
Tower ibrary (which I fervently hope Eg will derate from Ultimate Secret
to plain Unclassified)? Perhaps some introductory and andvanced texts in
physics and nuclear physics are extant in the 13th depository, and said
text will mention the principles and applications of nuclear fission.  
Now suppose that this information exist plus the information I wlll
mention below, and Eg & Co (the Wondergirls and Wonderboys (tm) ) gets
hold of said information.
First we have the problem of locating uranium ore. Any competent book on
natural science for K7-K9 would mention various minerals, and their
contents. In this context, pitchblende would definitely be mentioned as
this is THE ore one's searching for if one are searching for mineable
deposits of uranium. On a side note here, depleted uranium metal
(almost-pure U238) have numerous applications in today's industy and
commerce: small and compact counterweights and other application when
one wants a piece of metal that are cheap and DENSE - depleted uranium
fits the bill perfectly as it is very cheap compared with for example
tungsten, and it's density is about 19 grams per cubic centimeter. Now
we KNOW that Eg is very strong in Earth, so if she is given information
of the uranium contents of pitchblende, she should be able to (1) locate
such deposits and (2) as a first step extract the uranium from the ore.
Next would be the separation of the two domninant uranium isotopes
namely U238 (99.3%) and U235 (0.7%), but if Eg is as strong in Earth as
TGH hinted at, she should be able to separate the isotopes into two
piles, the bigger one containing U238 and smaller one containing U235.
Now that the TAS have almost-pure U235 and have it stored in such a way
that each lump is undercritical, the making of a simple fission weapon
would be quite easy even if it's workings and description are only in a
K9-K12 textbook on physics. What I'm thinking of here are the childishly
simple cannon-bomb that was dropped over Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 0815 local
time and which killed about a quarter of a million people, either
directly or over the following ten years - and there are STILL people
from Hiroshima at the time of the bombing that are dying today! A cannon
bomb can be described thusly. Take a gun barrel that will allow the
uranium projectile to be accelerated to a speed of about 1000 m/s. Next,
weld the major part of the U235 at the top of the gun barrel - in this
case a sphere with a hole drilled into it that will fit with the uranium
projectile that's being shot from the bottom of the gun barrel. The
projectile would be machined to fit exactly inside the hole in the
spherical U235 main body, and it will be seated on the upper end of the
driving charge. If you are aiming for maximum efficience, the gunpower
should be smokeless gunpower, but if you are seeking an already-extant
gunpowder that is in use in Randland now, you could use the time-honored
black powder instead. You lose yield if you must use black powder a the
driving charge, but what the hell - if the bomb yield would have been in
the 10+ kT range with smokeless powder but only 0.1-1 kT with a black
powder charge, so what? Dropping it over the advancing trollocs&Fades
would wreak huge destruction, and if you can't drop the bomb but know
WHERE the Trolloc army will pass, you can simply bury it in the ground
and setting it off by physical means (a tripwire that would ignite a
short lenght of blackpowder fuse that in turn would ignite the
blackpowder driver charge in the bomb), or by a weave of Fire directed
at the blackpowder charge in the bomb. If a Sister or Ash'aman could
create a Weave that would reflect back escaping neutrons from the
fissioning mass of U235 (probably a Air of Fire weave or a combo of
Air/Fire), so much the better, you would get very much more bang for the
buck this way, perhaps upgrading the weapon from a 0.1-1kT yield to
perhaps 50-100kT yield.
So my 0.5*10**2SEK opinion is that if info of this type of bomb and it's
physics (K9-K19 level) exists in the 13th Depository, and that
references to atom bomb also exists - either in the 13th depository
itself, in the main Tower library or in the possession of a Brown sister
- Eg&Co can go ahead of constructing the crude cannon bomb model en
masse. Perhaps they would test fire the first bomb assembly t for
ascertaining that their design was correct. If it explodes, even with a
yield of only .1-1Kt, they could then go into mass producing this simple
nuclear bomb. They will definitely need them at Tarmon Gaidon, if they
want to make any signifant dents in the onrushing trolloc/fade hordes.
But it WOULD be nice if Rand should remember the Trolloc-killing Weave
he used in the Stone Of Tear that hunted down and killed every last
Trolloc that was present in the fortress at that time. It searched every
nook and cranny of the Stone and waxed ALL trollocs&Fades present. Loose
THAT weave on the battlefield and Rand - or some other Ash'aman or
Sister who have learned of this Weawe - could kill a HUGE amount of
Trollocs&Fades, and we are talking of killing trollocs&Fades on a
100,000 - 1,000,000 scale here for each loosened Weave which I assume is
somehow self-limiting, i.e. it will not expand over the whole Arda and
killing off every Trolloc and Fades that exist, leaving the world free
of these evil characters. The Trollock&Fade-killing Weave in the Stone
was self-limiting in that it didn't reach outside the Stone but worked
perfectly inside this massive and many-roomed building.

I would just Balefire the daylights out of the Trolloc army!

[Nemo]

Gorrrr. Look at all dat typin'!

He musta wore iz bingers to der phone!

Post by Christer Jacobsson

Post by TB

Post by Christer Jacobsson
As Salaam Aleikum!
We know that the OP can couple to the electromagnetic force: forming
lightning bolts from thin air (no thunderheads in the sky) implies that
the Weave that creates the lightning bolts must interact with the
electromagnetic force. If this is the case, should not the OP be able to
couple to the other three forces in physics, namely gravitation, strong
nuclear force and weak nuclear force? I think that we have seen the OP
couple to the gravity force when one of the Forsaken hits Rand with a
multiple-Gee gravitational field when he battles said Forsaken at the
end of TDR. Now IF the OP can couple with the weak and strong nuclear
force, you can get some really interesting and destructive Weaves out of
this. For example, suppose one of the Good Gals/Guys(tm) create a Weave
that will enhance the weak nuclear force in one litre of plain water.
The result? With the enhanced weak nuclear force, room-temperature
fusion would be achieved and that single litre of water would yield an
explosive force in the high-megaton range. Veeeeery nice if you have to
destroy some huge bunch of Trollocs and Fades en masse on the
battlefield. Enhanging the strong nuclear force (SNF) can give you some
very spectactular events. Take a lump of uranium (0.7% U-235, 99.3&
U-238) and increase the SNF a hundrefold. The result? Instant explosive
fission in the lumop of natural uranium in the 1-100 kT interval, making
an innocent piece of natural uranium into a core of a fission weapon
with a high yield without the hassle of explosive lenses to compress the
piece of uranium to supercriticality: a local hundredfold increase in
the SNF would bring a 10-kile bit of ordinary uranium to
supercriticality, thereby starting a massive fission explosive chain
reaction. A Weave very nice to have on the battlefield: let Mat put a
projectile of uranium in one of his Dragons, fire it towards the enemy
and when the projectile reaches the desired altitude and location, let a
Sister/Ash'aman hit it with a SNF-enhancing Weave. The result? An
explosion in the 1-100 kiloton range which would totally wipe out the
attacking force. Veeery nice :-)

Where would Mat get uranium, and how would he know of its explosive
properties? All his military knowledge is from after the Breaking.

You are correct in this as the situation now stands. But what
information from the AoL may be hidden in the 13th Depository of the
Tower ibrary (which I fervently hope Eg will derate from Ultimate Secret
to plain Unclassified)? Perhaps some introductory and andvanced texts in
physics and nuclear physics are extant in the 13th depository, and said
text will mention the principles and applications of nuclear fission.
Now suppose that this information exist plus the information I wlll
mention below, and Eg & Co (the Wondergirls and Wonderboys (tm) ) gets
hold of said information.
First we have the problem of locating uranium ore. Any competent book on
natural science for K7-K9 would mention various minerals, and their
contents. In this context, pitchblende would definitely be mentioned as
this is THE ore one's searching for if one are searching for mineable
deposits of uranium. On a side note here, depleted uranium metal
(almost-pure U238) have numerous applications in today's industy and
commerce: small and compact counterweights and other application when
one wants a piece of metal that are cheap and DENSE - depleted uranium
fits the bill perfectly as it is very cheap compared with for example
tungsten, and it's density is about 19 grams per cubic centimeter. Now
we KNOW that Eg is very strong in Earth, so if she is given information
of the uranium contents of pitchblende, she should be able to (1) locate
such deposits and (2) as a first step extract the uranium from the ore.
Next would be the separation of the two domninant uranium isotopes
namely U238 (99.3%) and U235 (0.7%), but if Eg is as strong in Earth as
TGH hinted at, she should be able to separate the isotopes into two
piles, the bigger one containing U238 and smaller one containing U235.
Now that the TAS have almost-pure U235 and have it stored in such a way
that each lump is undercritical, the making of a simple fission weapon
would be quite easy even if it's workings and description are only in a
K9-K12 textbook on physics. What I'm thinking of here are the childishly
simple cannon-bomb that was dropped over Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 0815 local
time and which killed about a quarter of a million people, either
directly or over the following ten years - and there are STILL people
from Hiroshima at the time of the bombing that are dying today! A cannon
bomb can be described thusly. Take a gun barrel that will allow the
uranium projectile to be accelerated to a speed of about 1000 m/s. Next,
weld the major part of the U235 at the top of the gun barrel - in this
case a sphere with a hole drilled into it that will fit with the uranium
projectile that's being shot from the bottom of the gun barrel. The
projectile would be machined to fit exactly inside the hole in the
spherical U235 main body, and it will be seated on the upper end of the
driving charge. If you are aiming for maximum efficience, the gunpower
should be smokeless gunpower, but if you are seeking an already-extant
gunpowder that is in use in Randland now, you could use the time-honored
black powder instead. You lose yield if you must use black powder a the
driving charge, but what the hell - if the bomb yield would have been in
the 10+ kT range with smokeless powder but only 0.1-1 kT with a black
powder charge, so what? Dropping it over the advancing trollocs&Fades
would wreak huge destruction, and if you can't drop the bomb but know
WHERE the Trolloc army will pass, you can simply bury it in the ground
and setting it off by physical means (a tripwire that would ignite a
short lenght of blackpowder fuse that in turn would ignite the
blackpowder driver charge in the bomb), or by a weave of Fire directed
at the blackpowder charge in the bomb. If a Sister or Ash'aman could
create a Weave that would reflect back escaping neutrons from the
fissioning mass of U235 (probably a Air of Fire weave or a combo of
Air/Fire), so much the better, you would get very much more bang for the
buck this way, perhaps upgrading the weapon from a 0.1-1kT yield to
perhaps 50-100kT yield.
So my 0.5*10**2SEK opinion is that if info of this type of bomb and it's
physics (K9-K19 level) exists in the 13th Depository, and that
references to atom bomb also exists - either in the 13th depository
itself, in the main Tower library or in the possession of a Brown sister
- Eg&Co can go ahead of constructing the crude cannon bomb model en
masse. Perhaps they would test fire the first bomb assembly t for
ascertaining that their design was correct. If it explodes, even with a
yield of only .1-1Kt, they could then go into mass producing this simple
nuclear bomb. They will definitely need them at Tarmon Gaidon, if they
want to make any signifant dents in the onrushing trolloc/fade hordes.
But it WOULD be nice if Rand should remember the Trolloc-killing Weave
he used in the Stone Of Tear that hunted down and killed every last
Trolloc that was present in the fortress at that time. It searched every
nook and cranny of the Stone and waxed ALL trollocs&Fades present. Loose
THAT weave on the battlefield and Rand - or some other Ash'aman or
Sister who have learned of this Weawe - could kill a HUGE amount of
Trollocs&Fades, and we are talking of killing trollocs&Fades on a
100,000 - 1,000,000 scale here for each loosened Weave which I assume is
somehow self-limiting, i.e. it will not expand over the whole Arda and
killing off every Trolloc and Fades that exist, leaving the world free
of these evil characters. The Trollock&Fade-killing Weave in the Stone
was self-limiting in that it didn't reach outside the Stone but worked
perfectly inside this massive and many-roomed building.

I would just Balefire the daylights out of the Trolloc army!

[Don Stockbauer]

Post by Nemo
Gorrrr. Look at all dat typin'!
He musta wore iz bingers to der phone!

Post by Christer Jacobsson

Post by TB

Post by Christer Jacobsson
As Salaam Aleikum!
We know that the OP can couple to the electromagnetic force: forming
lightning bolts from thin air (no thunderheads in the sky) implies that
the Weave that creates the lightning bolts must interact with the
electromagnetic force. If this is the case, should not the OP be able to
couple to the other three forces in physics, namely gravitation, strong
nuclear force and weak nuclear force? I think that we have seen the OP
couple to the gravity force when one of the Forsaken hits Rand with a
multiple-Gee gravitational field when he battles said Forsaken at the
end of TDR. Now IF the OP can couple with the weak and strong nuclear
force, you can get some really interesting and destructive Weaves out of
this. For example, suppose one of the Good Gals/Guys(tm) create a Weave
that will enhance the weak nuclear force in one litre of plain water.
The result? With the enhanced weak nuclear force, room-temperature
fusion would be achieved and that single litre of water would yield an
explosive force in the high-megaton range. Veeeeery nice if you have to
destroy some huge bunch of Trollocs and Fades en masse on the
battlefield. Enhanging the strong nuclear force (SNF) can give you some
very spectactular events. Take a lump of uranium (0.7% U-235, 99.3&
U-238) and increase the SNF a hundrefold. The result? Instant explosive
fission in the lumop of natural uranium in the 1-100 kT interval, making
an innocent piece of natural uranium into a core of a fission weapon
with a high yield without the hassle of explosive lenses to compress the
piece of uranium to supercriticality: a local hundredfold increase in
the SNF would bring a 10-kile bit of ordinary uranium to
supercriticality, thereby starting a massive fission explosive chain
reaction. A Weave very nice to have on the battlefield: let Mat put a
projectile of uranium in one of his Dragons, fire it towards the enemy
and when the projectile reaches the desired altitude and location, let a
Sister/Ash'aman hit it with a SNF-enhancing Weave. The result? An
explosion in the 1-100 kiloton range which would totally wipe out the
attacking force. Veeery nice :-)

Where would Mat get uranium, and how would he know of its explosive
properties? All his military knowledge is from after the Breaking.

You are correct in this as the situation now stands. But what
information from the AoL may be hidden in the 13th Depository of the
Tower ibrary (which I fervently hope Eg will derate from Ultimate Secret
to plain Unclassified)? Perhaps some introductory and andvanced texts in
physics and nuclear physics are extant in the 13th depository, and said
text will mention the principles and applications of nuclear fission.
Now suppose that this information exist plus the information I wlll
mention below, and Eg & Co (the Wondergirls and Wonderboys (tm) ) gets
hold of said information.
First we have the problem of locating uranium ore. Any competent book on
natural science for K7-K9 would mention various minerals, and their
contents. In this context, pitchblende would definitely be mentioned as
this is THE ore one's searching for if one are searching for mineable
deposits of uranium. On a side note here, depleted uranium metal
(almost-pure U238) have numerous applications in today's industy and
commerce: small and compact counterweights and other application when
one wants a piece of metal that are cheap and DENSE - depleted uranium
fits the bill perfectly as it is very cheap compared with for example
tungsten, and it's density is about 19 grams per cubic centimeter. Now
we KNOW that Eg is very strong in Earth, so if she is given information
of the uranium contents of pitchblende, she should be able to (1) locate
such deposits and (2) as a first step extract the uranium from the ore.
Next would be the separation of the two domninant uranium isotopes
namely U238 (99.3%) and U235 (0.7%), but if Eg is as strong in Earth as
TGH hinted at, she should be able to separate the isotopes into two
piles, the bigger one containing U238 and smaller one containing U235.
Now that the TAS have almost-pure U235 and have it stored in such a way
that each lump is undercritical, the making of a simple fission weapon
would be quite easy even if it's workings and description are only in a
K9-K12 textbook on physics. What I'm thinking of here are the childishly
simple cannon-bomb that was dropped over Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 0815 local
time and which killed about a quarter of a million people, either
directly or over the following ten years - and there are STILL people
from Hiroshima at the time of the bombing that are dying today! A cannon
bomb can be described thusly. Take a gun barrel that will allow the
uranium projectile to be accelerated to a speed of about 1000 m/s. Next,
weld the major part of the U235 at the top of the gun barrel - in this
case a sphere with a hole drilled into it that will fit with the uranium
projectile that's being shot from the bottom of the gun barrel. The
projectile would be machined to fit exactly inside the hole in the
spherical U235 main body, and it will be seated on the upper end of the
driving charge. If you are aiming for maximum efficience, the gunpower
should be smokeless gunpower, but if you are seeking an already-extant
gunpowder that is in use in Randland now, you could use the time-honored
black powder instead. You lose yield if you must use black powder a the
driving charge, but what the hell - if the bomb yield would have been in
the 10+ kT range with smokeless powder but only 0.1-1 kT with a black
powder charge, so what? Dropping it over the advancing trollocs&Fades
would wreak huge destruction, and if you can't drop the bomb but know
WHERE the Trolloc army will pass, you can simply bury it in the ground
and setting it off by physical means (a tripwire that would ignite a
short lenght of blackpowder fuse that in turn would ignite the
blackpowder driver charge in the bomb), or by a weave of Fire directed
at the blackpowder charge in the bomb. If a Sister or Ash'aman could
create a Weave that would reflect back escaping neutrons from the
fissioning mass of U235 (probably a Air of Fire weave or a combo of
Air/Fire), so much the better, you would get very much more bang for the
buck this way, perhaps upgrading the weapon from a 0.1-1kT yield to
perhaps 50-100kT yield.
So my 0.5*10**2SEK opinion is that if info of this type of bomb and it's
physics (K9-K19 level) exists in the 13th Depository, and that
references to atom bomb also exists - either in the 13th depository
itself, in the main Tower library or in the possession of a Brown sister
- Eg&Co can go ahead of constructing the crude cannon bomb model en
masse. Perhaps they would test fire the first bomb assembly t for
ascertaining that their design was correct. If it explodes, even with a
yield of only .1-1Kt, they could then go into mass producing this simple
nuclear bomb. They will definitely need them at Tarmon Gaidon, if they
want to make any signifant dents in the onrushing trolloc/fade hordes.
But it WOULD be nice if Rand should remember the Trolloc-killing Weave
he used in the Stone Of Tear that hunted down and killed every last
Trolloc that was present in the fortress at that time. It searched every
nook and cranny of the Stone and waxed ALL trollocs&Fades present. Loose
THAT weave on the battlefield and Rand - or some other Ash'aman or
Sister who have learned of this Weawe - could kill a HUGE amount of
Trollocs&Fades, and we are talking of killing trollocs&Fades on a
100,000 - 1,000,000 scale here for each loosened Weave which I assume is
somehow self-limiting, i.e. it will not expand over the whole Arda and
killing off every Trolloc and Fades that exist, leaving the world free
of these evil characters. The Trollock&Fade-killing Weave in the Stone
was self-limiting in that it didn't reach outside the Stone but worked
perfectly inside this massive and many-roomed building.

I would just Balefire the daylights out of the Trolloc army!

If your brain won't work then you need to fire all your neurons.

[jjvors]

Post by Christer Jacobsson
As Salaam Aleikum!

<snip>

Post by Christer Jacobsson
We know that the OP can couple to the electromagnetic force: forming
lightning bolts from thin air (no thunderheads in the sky) implies that
the Weave that creates the lightning bolts must interact with the
electromagnetic force. If this is the case, should not the OP be able to
couple to the other three forces in physics, namely gravitation, strong
nuclear force and weak nuclear force? I think that we have seen the OP
couple to the gravity force when one of the Forsaken hits Rand with a
multiple-Gee gravitational field when he battles said Forsaken at the
end of TDR. Now IF the OP can couple with the weak and strong nuclear
force, you can get some really interesting and destructive Weaves out of
this. For example, suppose one of the Good Gals/Guys(tm) create a Weave
that will enhance the weak nuclear force in one litre of plain water.
The result? With the enhanced weak nuclear force, room-temperature
fusion would be achieved and that single litre of water would yield an
explosive force in the high-megaton range. Veeeeery nice if you have to
destroy some huge bunch of Trollocs and Fades en masse on the
battlefield. Enhanging the strong nuclear force (SNF) can give you some
very spectactular events. Take a lump of uranium (0.7% U-235, 99.3&
U-238) and increase the SNF a hundrefold. The result? Instant explosive
fission in the lumop of natural uranium in the 1-100 kT interval, making
an innocent piece of natural uranium into a core of a fission weapon
with a high yield without the hassle of explosive lenses to compress the
piece of uranium to supercriticality: a local hundredfold increase in
the SNF would bring a 10-kile bit of ordinary uranium to
supercriticality, thereby starting a massive fission explosive chain
reaction. A Weave very nice to have on the battlefield: let Mat put a
projectile of uranium in one of his Dragons, fire it towards the enemy
and when the projectile reaches the desired altitude and location, let a
Sister/Ash'aman hit it with a SNF-enhancing Weave. The result? An
explosion in the 1-100 kiloton range which would totally wipe out the
attacking force. Veeery nice :-)

Interesting theory about OP and EMF (electro magnetic force).. I
always took the lightning creation to be more plebeian--channellers
merely used Air to create static charges, just like a regular
thunderstorm. If you are correct, then yes, OP should work with EMF
and the other forces. Also recall the forging of Perin's power
wrought hammer--the channeller actually could "feel" the atoms of
steel as it was forged. There is definitely the ability to "feel" EM
forces and interact with them.

Jeff Smith