Reaction Time

tootall wrote:There's a new commercial out that indicates that we humans can move at 268 miles per hour- and thereby dodge fastballs. Soooo......

Don´t rely too completely on "official numbers", i recall when back in school, we did a little science project, built a little gadget to test reaction times, calibrated very precisely down to milliseconds.

I consistently managed to react faster than humans are supposed to be capable of, hard limit, while one other was just above that limit, further showing that the stated "hard limit" known at the time was rubbish, and also that the probability for reaction times was equally incorrect, as otherwise, having 2 people out of 30 even be close to that limit, the odds are beyond ridiculous for that.

(many years later came the "amazing" and "shocking" news that a small percentage of people had nerves that were "hypered up", very good for fast reaction times and promoting chances of high IQ, not so great in regards to pain)

tootall wrote:My math skills seem to indicate that as in the vicinity of 300 plus ft per second. Slow handgun rounds move at about 850.

Given Merlin's 10 times normal strength and speed--- Does that mean that if he could see the bullet coming at Cayleb ---he could stop it? How about a small cannon ball?

First of all, unless he has steelhard skin as well, any bullet will still be HIGHLY likely to tear into his hand(or whatever he uses).
It´s not about strength or force, it´s about force per size.

Strength and speed are useless if the bullet still goes through his hand. Extreme precision is far more useful than strength for a theoretical "swatting the bullet".
Normal human strength is perfectly enough for it if you can match the speed, timing and precision enough. Which of course noone can realistically do. Even with superhyped reaction times and movement, very unlikely even if it might get into the realm of theoretically possible. Less likely than surviving a fall from 8000m or above. Which has actually happened more than once(a gunner on a B-17 during WWII, a flight attendant in the 50s or 60s and IIRC at least one more i can´t recall).


Second, if you want to dodge someone shooting at you, you do NOT dodge the bullet, that´s effectively impossible, you dodge the aim of the one shooting, something which is perfectly possible even if severely difficult.

Tenshinai wrote:

tootall wrote:There's a new commercial out that indicates that we humans can move at 268 miles per hour- and thereby dodge fastballs. Soooo......

Don´t rely too completely on "official numbers", i recall when back in school, we did a little science project, built a little gadget to test reaction times, calibrated very precisely down to milliseconds.

I consistently managed to react faster than humans are supposed to be capable of, hard limit, while one other was just above that limit, further showing that the stated "hard limit" known at the time was rubbish, and also that the probability for reaction times was equally incorrect, as otherwise, having 2 people out of 30 even be close to that limit, the odds are beyond ridiculous for that.

(many years later came the "amazing" and "shocking" news that a small percentage of people had nerves that were "hypered up", very good for fast reaction times and promoting chances of high IQ, not so great in regards to pain)

tootall wrote:My math skills seem to indicate that as in the vicinity of 300 plus ft per second. Slow handgun rounds move at about 850.

Given Merlin's 10 times normal strength and speed--- Does that mean that if he could see the bullet coming at Cayleb ---he could stop it? How about a small cannon ball?

First of all, unless he has steelhard skin as well, any bullet will still be HIGHLY likely to tear into his hand(or whatever he uses).
It´s not about strength or force, it´s about force per size.

Strength and speed are useless if the bullet still goes through his hand. Extreme precision is far more useful than strength for a theoretical "swatting the bullet".
Normal human strength is perfectly enough for it if you can match the speed, timing and precision enough. Which of course noone can realistically do. Even with superhyped reaction times and movement, very unlikely even if it might get into the realm of theoretically possible. Less likely than surviving a fall from 8000m or above. Which has actually happened more than once(a gunner on a B-17 during WWII, a flight attendant in the 50s or 60s and IIRC at least one more i can´t recall).


Second, if you want to dodge someone shooting at you, you do NOT dodge the bullet, that´s effectively impossible, you dodge the aim of the one shooting, something which is perfectly possible even if severely difficult.

Even with steel hard skin, Merlin might well have a problem. Remember those steel curisasses that Merlin shot at in front of Stonar and Cayleb - holes punched right through them.

Merlin's shell is battlesteel, isn't it? IIRC, in LAMA in that incident where Merlin killed those inquisitors who were involved in "cleansing" that town, he did take some close range hits from firearms without any damage. In OAR, the comment is made that there is very little on Safehold that could actually damage Merlin, at least beyond repair...

Dunno...being at ground zero of a large explosion maybe?

Don

Depends on what you call damage.

I suspect that if you had examined Merlin's skin after he took those shots, you'd find holes in his skin.

Mind you, it's likely that such holes would "heal" quickly.

IMO it's his "vitals" that heavily protected.

n7axw wrote:Merlin's shell is battlesteel, isn't it? IIRC, in LAMA in that incident where Merlin killed those inquisitors who were involved in "cleansing" that town, he did take some close range hits from firearms without any damage. In OAR, the comment is made that there is very little on Safehold that could actually damage Merlin, at least beyond repair...

Dunno...being at ground zero of a large explosion maybe?

Don

As for being at "ground zero of a large explosion", I suspect he'd survive any likely explosion that he'd be caught in.

Current Safehold weaponry/explosives isn't likely to cause permanent damage.

Now, publicly Merlin would be killed by being caught in a such an explosion since no human could survive it so he'd have to create a new identity.

n7axw wrote:Merlin's shell is battlesteel, isn't it? IIRC, in LAMA in that incident where Merlin killed those inquisitors who were involved in "cleansing" that town, he did take some close range hits from firearms without any damage. In OAR, the comment is made that there is very little on Safehold that could actually damage Merlin, at least beyond repair...

Dunno...being at ground zero of a large explosion maybe?

Don

n7axw wrote:Merlin's shell is battlesteel, isn't it? IIRC, in LAMA in that incident where Merlin killed those inquisitors who were involved in "cleansing" that town, he did take some close range hits from firearms without any damage. In OAR, the comment is made that there is very little on Safehold that could actually damage Merlin, at least beyond repair...

Dunno...being at ground zero of a large explosion maybe?

Don

If his skin is that hard, it might pose a few questions when someone shakes his hand, or strokes his face, as Iris did at least once before she was inducted into the inner circle.

Yep.

The thing to remember is that PICAs weren't intended to be "battle drones".

They were intended to provide mobility for handicapped people and for extreme sports.

IMO the only damage that the designers were worried about was to the brain and power source.

Anything else would be repairable after the fact.

fallsfromtrees wrote:

n7axw wrote:Merlin's shell is battlesteel, isn't it? IIRC, in LAMA in that incident where Merlin killed those inquisitors who were involved in "cleansing" that town, he did take some close range hits from firearms without any damage. In OAR, the comment is made that there is very little on Safehold that could actually damage Merlin, at least beyond repair...

Dunno...being at ground zero of a large explosion maybe?

Don

If his skin is that hard, it might pose a few questions when someone shakes his hand, or strokes his face, as Iris did at least once before she was inducted into the inner circle.

fallsfromtrees wrote:Even with steel hard skin, Merlin might well have a problem. Remember those steel curisasses that Merlin shot at in front of Stonar and Cayleb - holes punched right through them.

Those holes were punched by Merlin's monster revolver which fired full up rifle bullets which have conical points IIRC.

I thought we were talking pistol balls fired from flintlock pistols as used by Hainree when he tried to assassinate Sharleyan. Those should have considerably less penetrating power.

fallsfromtrees wrote:If his skin is that hard, it might pose a few questions when someone shakes his hand, or strokes his face, as Iris did at least once before she was inducted into the inner circle.

Don't forget the "ballistic undies" Merlin provided to Cayleb, Sharleyan, and others. Thin soft fabric most of the time that can nonetheless harden in an instant to stop bullets from penetrating. Merlin's skin (or a layer under the skin) can be made of similar smart materials, and nothing under his skin is as fragile as Sharleyan's ribs.

When Merlin gave the battle steel armor to Cayleb in Off Armageddon Reef, he thought that the reason he was wearing battle steel armor was because a bullet not penetrating the armor was much easier to explain than "why the hole the same bullet had left in his torso wasn't bleeding". So bullets will go through his skin, and enough more to leave an actual hole, at least in the torso. He also thinks that even a direct hit by a heavy cannon couldn't significantly damage his "brain" and that the power plant inside him is protected by a centimeter of battle steel, which is why he's so durable.

My guess is he was wearing the "ballistic undies" during that fight, rather than his skin acting that way. Any damage he took from the force probably wouldn't impair him and would heal quickly. Though he might have some antiballistic armor around his more sensitive parts somewhere too.

Couple of thoughts:

1) Merlin's power plant is covered by a shell of battle - steel. Nothing else was mentioned as having that level of protection.

2) I would think that reaction time and speed need to be considered differently in Merlin's case. Merlin sees a gunman/assassin (stimulus). He decides what to do and tells the corresponding "muscles" what to do (reaction). The muscles then act (speed). I am sure that the world does tend to appear to slow down for him, but it allows him to make rational actions he had not been trained to do.