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Context: I'm an artist working with a writer on a superhero comic. One of the characters we were thinking of adding is a person with electricity powers. However, the writer wants the electricity powers to be somewhat more "realistic" (at least, aside from the whole electric super-powered human thing).
I've taken a year of physics, but electricity was always my weakest subject so of course it is coming back to bite me in the ass now. I do understand nuclear physics/chem (electrons, charge, photons, etc) but thinking about it on a larger scale is difficult.
So, here is a very rough schematic of a bunch of situations that could happen while this character is fighting:
http://i.imgur.com/g2MkCeG.png
For situation 1, the writer thinks shooting a lightning bolt straight to the target is unrealistic, and that if a human were to have such superpowers it would be difficult to control where the electricity will go, and it would just kind of blast out and hit anyone/anything nearby with the least resistance. Does that seem right?
Situation 2-5, the electric human makes direct contact with the target. Does it matter if the target is grounded or not? Does it matter if the electric human is grounded or not? Does it matter if he's only touching the target with one hand?
Situation 6-9. We were thinking that instead of shooting electricity directly out of his body, he holds onto some gun-shaped device that can absorb his electricity, channel it through and come out like an electrolaser or plasma beam or something. So the gun is useless by itself, and if a regular human holds the gun, nothing comes out. Does this seem plausable (or at least, not horribly *wrong*)? If so, same questions apply--are there situations where the target is invulnerable to these attacks (floating or jumping in the air, does it matter if they're wearing metal armor or something?)
Situation 10-11, he could throw conductive wires like a lasso. But if the lasso doesn't penetrate the target (like a taser) does it not matter? If there are two ends of the rope on the target, or if the rope is made of 2 wires braided together, would that make a complete circuit through the target? (kind of a silly way to fight, but whatever)
Some other situations that I've thought about (but was too lazy to add to the schematic image): How does the situation change if the target is underwater (assuming it's not 100% pure water)? If they're in space? The target is wearing an insulating armor (rubber boots or something?)
I've taken a year of physics, but electricity was always my weakest subject so of course it is coming back to bite me in the ass now. I do understand nuclear physics/chem (electrons, charge, photons, etc) but thinking about it on a larger scale is difficult.
So, here is a very rough schematic of a bunch of situations that could happen while this character is fighting:
http://i.imgur.com/g2MkCeG.png
For situation 1, the writer thinks shooting a lightning bolt straight to the target is unrealistic, and that if a human were to have such superpowers it would be difficult to control where the electricity will go, and it would just kind of blast out and hit anyone/anything nearby with the least resistance. Does that seem right?
Situation 2-5, the electric human makes direct contact with the target. Does it matter if the target is grounded or not? Does it matter if the electric human is grounded or not? Does it matter if he's only touching the target with one hand?
Situation 6-9. We were thinking that instead of shooting electricity directly out of his body, he holds onto some gun-shaped device that can absorb his electricity, channel it through and come out like an electrolaser or plasma beam or something. So the gun is useless by itself, and if a regular human holds the gun, nothing comes out. Does this seem plausable (or at least, not horribly *wrong*)? If so, same questions apply--are there situations where the target is invulnerable to these attacks (floating or jumping in the air, does it matter if they're wearing metal armor or something?)
Situation 10-11, he could throw conductive wires like a lasso. But if the lasso doesn't penetrate the target (like a taser) does it not matter? If there are two ends of the rope on the target, or if the rope is made of 2 wires braided together, would that make a complete circuit through the target? (kind of a silly way to fight, but whatever)
Some other situations that I've thought about (but was too lazy to add to the schematic image): How does the situation change if the target is underwater (assuming it's not 100% pure water)? If they're in space? The target is wearing an insulating armor (rubber boots or something?)