(renamed based on board monitors suggestion)

For those of you who are already tired of this, duck and skip it. This is for those who are interested.

Wind doesn't damage everything. Mainly because wind has negligible mass, and poster ROBERTDH quantified it for us. Even though it might FEEL like wind can be an all-destructive force for ALL objects at extremely high velocities and/or concentration, this is not true. I put down 2 basic physics equations, not to show how PW works, but to hint at how much of a factor MASS has. The examples other cited of wind damage (such as window breakage and house uprooting) has to do more with the target then the wind itself. Buildings and windows will take damage differently than a half-plate, chain-mail, or leather.

I posted the physics equation IN response to ROBERTDH's post, to correct a few things, such as the absence of unit preservation. The tic-tac example was to QUALIFY the end number that ROBERTDH and I arrived at. Ok, this wind has about XX newtons of energy. What does that mean? The tic-tac was meant to show how little energy wind would have, given ROBERTDH's numbers.

Some very good points were made throughout the debate (with some people trying to emulate and restate the arguments as their own). The first was the notion of compressed air. While highly compressed streams mixed with water can deal damage, that's still completely different just compressed streams of air.

Another good point is that armor is made from a lot of different pieces. But still, you have to look at how they're joined. For leather or chain mail, it's unlikely that PW could damage them because of their flexibility. For plate armor that is comprised of large pieces, it's unlikely that they would be directly damaged because of their mass and strength of material. For lighter plates it is conceivable that high winds may get under the plates and exert enough pressure to pull off a few. But it is still highly unlikely because the person would be blown away by such a wind before something like that happens.

For example, think of the plates on the armor as the main body of the parachute, and think of the leather that ties the plate to the other plate pieces as the ropes of the parachute. The wind force underneath the plate is similiar to the wind force beneath the cloth of the parachute. But the cloth isn't "ripped" from the parachute, instead the strings hold, and the person is dragged with it.

Also if the metal was extremely thin, they would be able to get bent out of shape by the wind, but armor isn't that thin, and it's molded into a shape that would prevent that.

So here is my original point that was rendered "completely false", and got twisted and distorted by some other posts.

<<High winds wouldn't damage armor, unless there was something being blown IN the wind, like big objects that would cause dents, or sand or other particles that would cause erosion. >>

While some of you guys may be laughing at the notion that even insanely high and focused winds couldn't damage armor, my girlfriend and her roommate who are chemistry and engineering majors respectively here at Berkeley had fun hearing about some of your assumptions such as the "hair dryer magnification = the obvious."

Just remember things aren't always as obvious. Everyone thought it was obvious that the earth was flat, or sun revovled around the earth, or that a heavier object would drop faster than a lighter object.. anyone who thought differently was considered an idiot like me.

Also thanks to those of you who agreed with some of my points, but was afraid to appear to support someone who's being ridiculued by the political magnates of the DragonRealm boards.


-Armas

In response to comments about PW damaging the straps that hold armor together...

...I find this scenario rather unlikely. The straps that hold armor together have to hold up against a lot of weight sustained over long periods of time. The amount of force required to break those straps would just as likely break the target's bones first.

The other problem with the straps scenario is that armor damage is resisted by a single characteristic: the durability of the item. But the straps binding leather armor can be just as strong, or stronger, than the straps binding plate.

The other problem is that a broken strap would not make armor eventually "shatter". It also wouldn't be very hard to fix, compared, at least, to patching holes or repairing a dent.

I'll admit I find the notion of armor "durability" strange. It seems odd that leather armor would be damaged by blunt force at all, because the armor is so pliable. Wind damaging leather armor is just... really unusual.

Consider the amount of force it takes to break a nylon cord by pulling on it, compared to the amount of force required to cut it with a pair of shears. Currently, armor durability seems to take only the shears scenario into account.

Lainn

Air has volume no? PW is a "Foccused" burst of air. Targeted also. Anyone hear of a Shockwave? Also, much like Sound can destory solid objects at the right frequency, Air can also, when foccused, cause specific damage to solid objects. Including metal. Including leather. The more pliable the armor type, the less damage you would expect due to the greater absorbtion of the enegry from a hit. It is logical...I don't see why someone thinks that you HAVE to have true mass for someting to do any damage at all or specifically damage to armor types. All the physics behind is is interesting yes, but I don't know why they missed how volume plays into it. Another thought on it is that varrying air pressure can rend metal to pieces. And pressure is exactly what we are dealing with when using PW. A foccused volume of air directed at a specific part of an opponents body. And a side note, if the air that is directed in the attack is hotter or colder depending on the season, it could cause warping (ie damage) to armors such as plate. Though I admit that is stretching it.

>> And a side note, if the air that is directed in the attack is hotter or colder depending on the season, it could cause warping (ie damage) to armors such as plate. Though I admit that is stretching it. <<

The kind of pressure necessary to bend metal armor would instantly kill anyone caught within it.

For now I'm willing to assume the armor damage PW does comes from being dragged along the ground, a more reasonable explanation than actual wind damage (which would crush the target long before the armor).

Lainn

I don't personally understand how an arugment to the effect of "ammount of X to crush the can of beans would have allready have crushed the beans." is realistic?

If the armor is being so damaged, the force isn't getting directly through to the person. Now, it seems to me the easiest way to figure out where the armor damage from PW comes from would be to shoot someone with the same cast in and our of their armor. We can get that Air Cabal up and running, do some real Aether-Cabal quality research. It works so much better in the long run than arguing meta-game physics with theoretical information spurred by people annoyed that their armor is suddenly in danger from snerty and/or vengefull people with a PW scroll.

If an armor-damaging cast turns an un-armored person into a rapidly decaying plasma, then the spell is damaing by the force of the impact, otherwise the causes may be the victim being tossed around like a rag doll, extreme torque and drag rapidly accelerating the armor bits, or something as bizzare as the spell-matrix being at the destructive frequency for leather and most metals.

More testing you could do would be to see if the distance you are pushed affects rate of armor damage, if falling down affects the rate of armor damage, how much, if any, damage you get through armor compared to incidences of armor damage, incidences of armor damages compared across armor types.