I usually try to give myself a legitimate reason to suspend disbelief. Things working differently in the counter-factual world are not distracting, they are just accepted as premises. In some stories things are explicitly not presented as premises of the world still seem to happen.
Should I expect to hear sonic booms whenever vampires wreak havoc upon the speed of sound?
If I looked at Edward’s shoes would I see them either constructed of specially designed material or to be significantly damaged every time he takes off at huge mutiples of g?
If I examined the tree that Alice showed off with would I see hand prints and general damage where she was picking it up and throwing it about? For that matter, should I have expected to see it break when subjected to those forces over such a small area?
When Edward runs across a wet field should I see mud and grass flying up at the points at which he starts and stops? When he stops does he need to turn around and start running the other way in an attempt to lose momentum?
I’m not invoking “acceleration magic”; vampires just move very fast.
I like ‘vampires just move very fast’. In terms of what the ‘just’ entails it seems that, for example, “just have the ability to output large amounts of power from the muscles and thereby cause acceleration through the application of force upon items in the environment” would be a rather ungainly. A somewhat more nebulous ‘just’ fits better for this kind of story.
This was prompted by thinking of the optimal way to protect a human passenger in the event of an automotive accident. If I was a lightweight version of Cameron—super strong and super fast but otherwise operating under completely standard physics—then I wouldn’t choose Edward’s passenger protection strategy. There are all sorts of other options which would require lower concentrations of force on the human’s body over time and space. But with the kind of strength and speed exhibited by the vampires in either Twilight or True Blood the approach seems to fit perfectly. They are ‘just’ really fast, for a specific kind of ‘just’.
Vampires do not exceed the speed of sound. They are not even as fast as ordinary airplanes or really fast cars, or they’d have no reason to use either barring subterfuge purposes and a fondness for vehicles. So no, no sonic boom. But over short distances, even going 100 mph would mean crossing a football field in a third of a second, if my back-of-envelope bad-at-math calculation is right. Bit quick for a human to follow. (They don’t take any appreciable time to start up and slow down when they aren’t trying to.)
Vampires that don’t care much about looking human often go barefoot; this is mentioned with James’s coven. Cullens do wear shoes. However, they not only move very quickly and strongly: they move precisely. Bella’s shown jumping out a high window in book 4 of canon in high heels and finding it as easy as taking a step on a normal floor. (Easier, probably, because human!Bella can find excuses to trip on ordinary floors and no vampire would ever trip on anything.) I imagine they can wear out shoes like nobody’s business, but if they care about them (which they may or may not, depending on how annoying it is to get new ones, since money is no object) they can probably arrange to plant their feet in shoe-preserving ways.
I specified that the tree wasn’t rotted when Alice picked it out. Wood can take a fair amount of knocking about. She could leave prints in it if she didn’t take care in her handling, but that would have interrupted her show. Note also that this is Alice in particular, who, if she cared about not breaking the tree, could see where it would be best to grab and catch it.
In canon, vampires are not described as leaving remarkable footprints or kicking up soil even when they’re running all-out playing baseball. This does seem odd. I don’t have a good explanation for it unless they’re doing something like the way Jesus lizards walk on water. I’m not planning to explore it in the story, though.
Do you regard math as difficult? If so, one trick I’ve learned is to restate any math problem you see as one about paperclips instead, but make sure you know the mapping to the original problem. This will make it a lot easier to find the answer!
It occurred to me even as I asked the question that just by asking it I would be locking myself in to hearing the answer. I suspect Bella would have deleted the question rather than post it were she in my shoes. ;)
I don’t really understand your question. I’m not invoking “acceleration magic”; vampires just move very fast.
I usually try to give myself a legitimate reason to suspend disbelief. Things working differently in the counter-factual world are not distracting, they are just accepted as premises. In some stories things are explicitly not presented as premises of the world still seem to happen.
Should I expect to hear sonic booms whenever vampires wreak havoc upon the speed of sound?
If I looked at Edward’s shoes would I see them either constructed of specially designed material or to be significantly damaged every time he takes off at huge mutiples of g?
If I examined the tree that Alice showed off with would I see hand prints and general damage where she was picking it up and throwing it about? For that matter, should I have expected to see it break when subjected to those forces over such a small area?
When Edward runs across a wet field should I see mud and grass flying up at the points at which he starts and stops? When he stops does he need to turn around and start running the other way in an attempt to lose momentum?
I like ‘vampires just move very fast’. In terms of what the ‘just’ entails it seems that, for example, “just have the ability to output large amounts of power from the muscles and thereby cause acceleration through the application of force upon items in the environment” would be a rather ungainly. A somewhat more nebulous ‘just’ fits better for this kind of story.
This was prompted by thinking of the optimal way to protect a human passenger in the event of an automotive accident. If I was a lightweight version of Cameron—super strong and super fast but otherwise operating under completely standard physics—then I wouldn’t choose Edward’s passenger protection strategy. There are all sorts of other options which would require lower concentrations of force on the human’s body over time and space. But with the kind of strength and speed exhibited by the vampires in either Twilight or True Blood the approach seems to fit perfectly. They are ‘just’ really fast, for a specific kind of ‘just’.
Vampires do not exceed the speed of sound. They are not even as fast as ordinary airplanes or really fast cars, or they’d have no reason to use either barring subterfuge purposes and a fondness for vehicles. So no, no sonic boom. But over short distances, even going 100 mph would mean crossing a football field in a third of a second, if my back-of-envelope bad-at-math calculation is right. Bit quick for a human to follow. (They don’t take any appreciable time to start up and slow down when they aren’t trying to.)
Vampires that don’t care much about looking human often go barefoot; this is mentioned with James’s coven. Cullens do wear shoes. However, they not only move very quickly and strongly: they move precisely. Bella’s shown jumping out a high window in book 4 of canon in high heels and finding it as easy as taking a step on a normal floor. (Easier, probably, because human!Bella can find excuses to trip on ordinary floors and no vampire would ever trip on anything.) I imagine they can wear out shoes like nobody’s business, but if they care about them (which they may or may not, depending on how annoying it is to get new ones, since money is no object) they can probably arrange to plant their feet in shoe-preserving ways.
I specified that the tree wasn’t rotted when Alice picked it out. Wood can take a fair amount of knocking about. She could leave prints in it if she didn’t take care in her handling, but that would have interrupted her show. Note also that this is Alice in particular, who, if she cared about not breaking the tree, could see where it would be best to grab and catch it.
In canon, vampires are not described as leaving remarkable footprints or kicking up soil even when they’re running all-out playing baseball. This does seem odd. I don’t have a good explanation for it unless they’re doing something like the way Jesus lizards walk on water. I’m not planning to explore it in the story, though.
Do you regard math as difficult? If so, one trick I’ve learned is to restate any math problem you see as one about paperclips instead, but make sure you know the mapping to the original problem. This will make it a lot easier to find the answer!
It occurred to me even as I asked the question that just by asking it I would be locking myself in to hearing the answer. I suspect Bella would have deleted the question rather than post it were she in my shoes. ;)