Exalted vs. RL physics?

[Inverse]

I've got to thinking how Exalted and RL physics compare. For instance, how would an RL human compare to Creation's mortal/humans? We know everything in the Exalted setting is made of motes and everything in RL is either energy or atomic particles. (Atomic particles being energy that's somehow become whatever it is atomic particles really are) The most powerfully overpowered Solar exalt is made of how many motes in total? 9,001? 1,000,000? Average-ish humans have approximately 7*10^27 atoms. (There are approximately 10^21 stars in the observable universe according to astronomer-mathematician-scientists.) Motes can do many crazy stuff, but the energy of one proton being released by one anti-proton is, uh, alot. I can't actually find how much energy it its, but I'm really really sure that the energy in one proton is enough to effect lots of other atomic-scale stuff, followed by lots of zeroes. (Yeah, that's not too accurate is it? ) If a Exalted was real, and an RL mortal ended up there (with all his RL stuff with him) would that RLotal be the same size as Exortals, or would all of creation fit under one foot? Would the presence of RL stuff so severely warp Creation's conceptualish reality that lots of Creation would go *poof*? Even if everyone was on human scale and reality wasn't suddenly destroyed, would interaction still be possible? Could I breath Creation's air, eat the food and drink the water? Would the powerful weapons and magic effect my alien, impossibly hyperdense biology at all? Will I ever get the mental picture of hundreds of KoC-style Exalts throwing their light shows ineffectively at an invincible mountain sized space-suited "behemoth", or alternatively an ant-sized space suit guy/gal?


Skipping the obvious "Exalted is fiction so everything can go," let's have some fun speculation if that's ok with everyone.


So many words! :shock:

 

[ghoti115]

Well, starting out with the Physics side of things, a singe proton releases about 0.00000001 Joules of energy (this is approximated based on E=m(c^2) and values are rounded up) or 10^-8.


However, if we are to calculate based on the number of atoms in a human, and the human was made of only single proton atoms, we would be looking at 70000000000000000000 (7*10^19) Joules. This would be equivalent to the amount of energy used by a Hurricane each day, an 8.8 earthquake, or the amount of energy consumed by the US in 2005.


Now, we would need to define what an Exalt can do with a single Mote of Essence so we can figure out the comparison. I think the clearest example is provided by the Zenith Caste Ability to illuminate the area around him as brightly as if it were noon for 10 Motes. This covers an area equal to Permanent Essence * 10 Yards. I will assume an Essence of 3 for 30 Yards (27.43200 meters). Or a circle area of 2364 m^2.


The noon sun generates about 18 Joules/cm^2 per hour (found in a book through Google Books). Since a scene can last for up to one hour, it does not need to be altered, just converted to m^2, which multiplies by 10,000, for 180,000 Joules/m^2 per hour. Which should be approximately 425,520,000 Joules, which I will call 4.26 * 10^8 Joules. Of course this is divided by 10 (the number of Motes spent) so it becomes 4.26 * 10^7 Joules. This makes each mote of Essence for an Essence 3 Exalt equal to 4.26 days of hard labor (going back to the Order or Magnitude link above).


Of course, an Essence 3 Exalt has approximately 52 Motes of Essence (minus any committed). Bringing the grand total of free energy available to the Exalt to 2215200000 Joules or 2.2 * 10^9 (approximately 2215200221.52 days of hard labor) or 2.2 gigajoules from all Motes being spent (including Peripheral Essence).


Now we would need to figure out what percent of the Personal Essence comes from their own atoms, but I may have thought about this too much. I think (ah, speculation) Essence rating reflects how much of yourself you can devote to an energy change without losing your personal integrity (1% per Essence). So a Mortal has 1 and is at 1%. If we take 1% of 7*10^19, we get 7*10^17, which vastly outweighs the Exalt despite calculating at 1 proton per atom.


So, a RL Mortal would not be as easily swayed by low Essence Exalt according to the Physics. But keep in mind the comparison is only valid for an Essence 3 Exalt. At higher Essence, the energy value of a Mote changes. At Essence 10, the power per mote becomes 4.7*10^9 (26268 m^2 circle) per mote. Since Exalts with Essence 10 have a max of Personal Motes of 40 and Peripheral Motes of 100 (not sure where 9000 came from), we can multiply 4.7 by 4 and increase 10^9 to 10^12 making it 1.9*10^13, which is a little closer to the 1% RL Mortal, but still not enough. Which results in Physics being thrown out the window in favor of a good story and fun game.


Though all of this is insignificant compared to the strength of a fully armed and operational Death Star (3.7*10^32 Joules).