Reaction Time

tootall wrote:runsforcelery Wrote

Nimue was operating in hyper heuristic mode in VR while she acquired those skills. Hence the term "several subjective five-days." And, no, she can't use that mode in the "real world" for all the reasons adduced. Because she has the high-speed port, she can enter that mode in VR, which Merlin cannot.


Thanks for the reply RFC- and my initial question was:

Could Merlin see a bullet -missile- coming and stop (deflect) it? (not catch it)

Assume that the assassin was 50ft away and that Merlin actually saw the muzzle flash. Given an 850 fps bullet (slow black powder), that bullet is going to take 1/17 of a second or 58.8 millisec to hist Cayleb. Normal Human reaction time is 250 millisec, but Merlin's reaction time is 100 times as fast, so 2.5 milliseconds, leaving about 56 milliseconds for Merlin to get in front of the bullet. If he is 20 feet away (typical distance for a body guard in close protection) then he will have to move at 357 fps second to get in front of the bullet. This is 243 mph. If he moves that fast, there are definitely questions that are going to be asked about him. I think the answer is no, he can't deflect the bullet.

Again. Merlin cannot move that fast so sayeth Newton.

I don't think that Merlin no matter how strong or fast he is can get traction between his feet and the ground in order to move that distance that fast.

6L6 wrote:I don't think that Merlin no matter how strong or fast he is can get traction between his feet and the ground in order to move that distance that fast.

So what we should do is use Merlin's super human strength to put a stake through this one.

Kaezar wrote:Something screwed with those reaction times. I mean, NANOseconds? I could go with microseconds, or more easily with miliseconds, but nanoseconds is way too fast. You said it yourself, nerves transmit messages at 100 m/s, so for a 2 meter tall human (just to give round results) it would take 2/100 or 0,02 seconds for a message to go from the feet to the brain. 300ns would make it almost a relativistic velocity. After all, lightspeed is 0.3 m/ns (or 1 ft/ns.

My bad - should have been m not n for the time to travel one way from the feet to the brain. It is called bad typing and brain not picking up what the fingers have typed because the brain said m not n

Quick point: Lots of modern handguns shoot subsonic rounds. For example the standard load of the 38 Special is around 750 fps.

The 45 ACP is about 850 to 900 fps in standard loads. Of course a +P or +P+ will push a 185 grain JHP over 1200 fps.

Hey, what's six orders of magnitude among friends?

A: a whole bloody lot, that's what it is

Thrandir wrote:

Kaezar wrote:Something screwed with those reaction times. I mean, NANOseconds? I could go with microseconds, or more easily with miliseconds, but nanoseconds is way too fast. You said it yourself, nerves transmit messages at 100 m/s, so for a 2 meter tall human (just to give round results) it would take 2/100 or 0,02 seconds for a message to go from the feet to the brain. 300ns would make it almost a relativistic velocity. After all, lightspeed is 0.3 m/ns (or 1 ft/ns.

My bad - should have been m not n for the time to travel one way from the feet to the brain. It is called bad typing and brain not picking up what the fingers have typed because the brain said m not n

fallsfromtrees wrote:Assume that the assassin was 50ft away and that Merlin actually saw the muzzle flash. Given an 850 fps bullet (slow black powder), that bullet is going to take 1/17 of a second or 58.8 millisec to hist Cayleb. Normal Human reaction time is 250 millisec, but Merlin's reaction time is 100 times as fast, so 2.5 milliseconds, leaving about 56 milliseconds for Merlin to get in front of the bullet. If he is 20 feet away (typical distance for a body guard in close protection)

20 feet? I've been assuming Merlin is standing right next to Cayleb (or Sharleyan) in this kind of scenario so that all he needs to do to catch a bullet is move his arm, not his whole body.

I base this on pop culture movies where a person (usually a bad guy) walks around with an entire parade of henchmen (some of whom are presumably also bodyguards) accompanying him.

Is 56 milliseconds enough time for Merlin to just raise an arm to intercept an 850 fps bullet?

evilauthor wrote:

fallsfromtrees wrote:Assume that the assassin was 50ft away and that Merlin actually saw the muzzle flash. Given an 850 fps bullet (slow black powder), that bullet is going to take 1/17 of a second or 58.8 millisec to hist Cayleb. Normal Human reaction time is 250 millisec, but Merlin's reaction time is 100 times as fast, so 2.5 milliseconds, leaving about 56 milliseconds for Merlin to get in front of the bullet. If he is 20 feet away (typical distance for a body guard in close protection)

20 feet? I've been assuming Merlin is standing right next to Cayleb (or Sharleyan) in this kind of scenario so that all he needs to do to catch a bullet is move his arm, not his whole body.

I base this on pop culture movies where a person (usually a bad guy) walks around with an entire parade of henchmen (some of whom are presumably also bodyguards) accompanying him.

Is 56 milliseconds enough time for Merlin to just raise an arm to intercept an 850 fps bullet?

Possible yes, explainable probably not - hence Caleb's bullet proof underwear (like Sharlanne's). So unless its a head shot Merlin doesn't need to do anything except shoot the assassin.

evilauthor wrote:

Is 56 milliseconds enough time for Merlin to just raise an arm to intercept an 850 fps bullet?

I worry that a bullet would pierce Merlin's hand and continue forward to the target, but assuming that's not so...

Assume that Merlin needs to move his hand 20 cm. Let's also assume that Merlin's hand can be moving at the moment of impact. That lets us use the smallest possible acceleration. Assuming Merlin's hand starts from a standstill...the acceleration works out to 12.8 m/S^2. That seems feasible considering the acceleration due to gravity is 9.8 m/S^2 During that time the bullet will have travelled 14.5 m. Seems a little iffy.

The problem with running is the manner of acceleration. People essentially tip themselves over and move their feet in such a way as to keep from falling. (It reminds me of Mr. Adam's technique for flying...throw yourself at the ground and miss.) If Merlin uses that technique, and I can't see how he can do other, then he has to lean forward, which can only be accomplished through the use of gravity. Then he has to move his legs fast enough to keep from hitting the ground. Initially he can't accomplish any more than a human does. It's only in top speed where his strength can accomplish greater accelerations and speed. (Of course with quicker reactions he can start sooner, but not as soon as all that.)

I've been watching for the six million dollar man error. The six million dollar man was equipped with two bionic legs and one bionic arm. In one episode he was required to bend a lamppost over to the ground which he did with his bionic arm. I really had to cringe at that one for two reasons. Firstly, since he wasn't equipped with a bionic spine, and since his spine was weaker than the average lamppost, I would have expected his spine to snap. Secondly, since the only thing that allowed him to push horizontally on the lamppost was the horizontal friction from his bionic feet then I would have expected his feet to slip out from under him. At least that would have saved his spine.

Fortunately for my ability to suspend disbelief, I haven't caught Merlin in the six million dollar man error.

~Tonto