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McAnally's (The Community Pub) => Author Craft => Topic started by: Nicodemus Carpenter on May 20, 2011, 09:45:52 AM
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Ok, short version. Among the many speculations within my speculative fiction novel concept are a group of people who, among other general enhancements, can generate electricity using specialized organs in their body a la electric eels/rays etc. They were scientifically designed to assassinate godlike figures whose closest approximation would be a dresdenverse wizard not bound by the first law. Time has passed, their original purpose has been forgotten, and now they serve as superpowered bodyguards and assassins for the nobles of an iron age style empire.
What I'm looking for is someone who understands the science well enough to tell me what will or won't work. If you can't help me there, I still wouldn't mind hearing from you since I generally work best when I can bounce ideas off multiple people.
Some of my questions include:
Why don't electric eels shock themselves? I've heard various theories about this, but nothing really convincing.
Would it be possible for a sixth sense similar to the Electric Eel or Shark's ability to sense bioelectric fields to function outside an aquatic environment?
Could electromagnets be reliably weaponized in the form of armor, such as a bracer? What I mean by this, is could you design a solenoid to fit inside a piece of armor or weapon that could be activated in various ways to either attract or repel other ferromagnetic materials? Could said solenoid also function as a small, but functional gauss cannon?
How would someone actually kill via electrocution if that were the aim? Would it require multiple contact points, or could a circut be formed using a single contact point such as a hand placed flat against the other person?
Assuming a person could generate a powerful and sustainable electric current inside himself, would he be able to create a magnetic field strong enough to affect ferromagnetic materials such as swords and armor enough to be of use in a combat situation?
How do magnetic materials actually function, and what determines which side attracts and which repel?
What is the difference between static and current electricity, and would it be possible to achieve "miniature lighting" affects from organs similar to those on the Electric Eel?
Most of these are designed to ensure I don't embarrass myself too badly when I write my action sequences, but I'd love to hear any tidbits you could offer, such as strange side effects, dietary requirements, etc.
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I hope I can help with some of this, I'm a soon to be graduated (next tuesday!) physicist, but electromagnetism isn't my strong suit, so this might not be complete or even correct.
Why don't electric eels shock themselves?
No idea
Would it be possible for a sixth sense similar to the Electric Eel or Shark's ability to sense bioelectric fields to function outside an aquatic environment?
I believe goose have this, they use the earth's magnetic field for navigation (there's an episode of Eureka about this, great series!)
Could electromagnets be reliably weaponized in the form of armor, such as a bracer? What I mean by this, is could you design a solenoid to fit inside a piece of armor or weapon that could be activated in various ways to either attract or repel other ferromagnetic materials? Could said solenoid also function as a small, but functional gauss cannon?
The main problem with electromagnets is that their fields are generally very weak. The only way to generate a strong field is to run a very high electric current through the solenoid. The problem with this is that because of the electrical resistance of the solenoid, an immense amount of heat would be generated (i.e. burning your arm). It is possible to circumvent this problem using superconducting coils, which have zero electrical resistance. The downside of this is that this requires very low temperatures (around -100 celcius is the highest temperature possible I believe). So once again you would be burning your arm. If you can somehow circumvent this problem I think it would be possible to use such a device for the purposes you mentioned.
How would someone actually kill via electrocution if that were the aim? Would it require multiple contact points, or could a circut be formed using a single contact point such as a hand placed flat against the other person?
To kill via electrocution you need to run a current through a person. This requires two contact points. These two points can be anything as long as there is a large voltage difference among them and they are conducting. So for instance you could place your hand (with a large high voltage) on someone and push them into something metallic like a signpost. This would create a current through them and kill them if that is large enough.
Assuming a person could generate a powerful and sustainable electric current inside himself, would he be able to create a magnetic field strong enough to affect ferromagnetic materials such as swords and armor enough to be of use in a combat situation?
I don't know, but my first instinct says no :P
How do magnetic materials actually function, and what determines which side attracts and which repel?
Inside the material are a lot of tiny regions where all atoms are pointed in the same direction. This creates a tiny amount of magnetism. By heating the material these regions get ' loose' and they can change direction. If the material is placed in a magnetic field, they will align with that field. If you cool it down now, the regions freeze back into place, only now they are all aimed in the same direction, creating a magnet. Which side attracts and which repels is based on the orientation of these regions. Same sides repel, opposite side attracts. (crappy analogy: the magnet is a bus, the people in it magnetic regions. Two busses in line behind each other attract: the people are front to back. If the first bus were to turn around, the people would be face to face with those in the the other bus, and they would repel each other).
<Running out of time, may expand this later. Short answer for now>
What is the difference between static and current electricity, and would it be possible to achieve "miniature lighting" affects from organs similar to those on the Electric Eel?
I think that might be possible.
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What is the difference between static and current electricity,
The amount of total energy transferred. "Static" electricity involves rather high voltages but usually very, very small, very time-limited transfers of charge. Because the amount of total energy is so low it takes very little chemical fuel or mechanical energy to generate.
Electricity as we use it from a socket represents enormous amounts of energy transfer.
To give you an idea, if a person can make enough mechanical energy with their body to power 3-4 light bulbs for longer than 20 minutes, we call that person an Olympic-level aerobic athlete and feed them 7000+ calories of food per day.
and would it be possible to achieve "miniature lighting" affects from organs similar to those on the Electric Eel?
Yes, but you'd need absurd amounts of generated voltage. In dry, nonionized air, you need 25 thousand volts to make an inch-long spark. Of course, it is much, much easier to put a second spark through the general area of the first spark.
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Why don't electric eels shock themselves?
When a living being is shocked or stunned in such a way, it is because the electric current produced by the eel disrupts and overrides that creatures natural electric current (nervous system). Because the electric eel is generating the current themselves, the organs responsible for producing this Bioelectrogenesis naturally communicate with the nervous systems and the brain, allowing it's own nervous system to cooperate with the electricity generated.
So while an electric eel cannot shock themselves, if they snuck up on another electric eel, they could probably shock and stun it depending on the voltage produced.
Would it be possible for a sixth sense similar to the Electric Eel or Shark's ability to sense bioelectric fields to function outside an aquatic environment?
Realistically, probably not, or very weak. Salt water is a much more efficient conductor than air due in a large part to the sodium (which coincidentally is the exact element used in the electric eels to produce their electricity). However, this can be combined with Magnetic bones that have been found in the human nose, specifically the sphenoidal/ethmoid sinuses. They exhibit magnetoception in humans, so clearly the human brain is capable. Magnetoception in humans has also been achieved by magnetic implants and by non-permanently attached artificial sensory "organs". So I could see these Electric Eel type organs having such a knock on effect.
Could electromagnets be reliably weaponized in the form of armor, such as a bracer? What I mean by this, is could you design a solenoid to fit inside a piece of armor or weapon that could be activated in various ways to either attract or repel other ferromagnetic materials? Could said solenoid also function as a small, but functional gauss cannon?
The electric organ is made of electrocytes, lined up so that the current flows through them and produces an electrical charge. In order to produce a coilgun, these lines of electrolytes would need to be wound around a metalic barrel of some sort to draw through the ferromagnetic material. An electromagnet functions the same way, in fact the magnetic field created by an electromagnet is proportional to both the number of turns in the winding, and the current in the wire. Since the current can adjusted, the strength likely can be too.
How would someone actually kill via electrocution if that were the aim? Would it require multiple contact points, or could a circut be formed using a single contact point such as a hand placed flat against the other person?
Death can occur from any shock that carries enough current. Small currents (70–700 mA) usually trigger fibrillation in the heart which is reversible via defibrillator, but large currents (> 1 A) cause permanent damage via burns, and cellular damage. The heart is most devastated by foreign electricity, next is the brain. One contact point should be enough if the victim is grounded. Two would be required if airborne, or the victim is properly insulated. I could see such a technique being used for torture. Also, it's likely that the executioner would receive burns and cellular damage themselves as a cost (which works wonderfully from a story standpoint), and these would take time to heal.
How do magnetic materials actually function, and what determines which side attracts and which repel?
For that I would suggest checking out Magnets on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnet
Should be loads of material there.
What is the difference between static and current electricity, and would it be possible to achieve "miniature lighting" affects from organs similar to those on the Electric Eel?
Again, wikipedia is your friend: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Static_electricity
Hope that helps
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Great replies everyone, pretty much exactly what I was looking for.
So the "human radar" idea is pretty much out, unless he goes swimming I guess. I can still use my "human compass" concept though, which, if accurate enough, could make him DEADLY at "pin the tail on the donkey." Perhaps I could hand-wave a bit and give him the ability to detect ferromagnetic materials via minute changes in his own personal magnetic field? Worth a thought at least.
A bit more hand-waving with the superconductor problem saying "they had extremely advanced technology" could enable my weaponized magnet concept.
Thanks again guys. If anyone has anything else to add or just any cool ideas like the "He also burns himself" thing, I'd love to hear them.
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Great replies everyone, pretty much exactly what I was looking for.
So the "human radar" idea is pretty much out, unless he goes swimming I guess.
Not at all. It's just that you shouldn't try to use steady (unchanging) field or static charge phenomena to accomplish it.
If he can make or detect electromagnetic waves then any number of sensing-type things can be done at very low powers. Including, literally, radar.
Or, if your character can simultaneously make a strong static magnetic field and an electromagnetic wave of the proper frequency, you can have your character do NMR/MRIs.
"Yes there is a water-based creature behind that door"
"that lump is a showing a lot of calcium and phosphorus"
If you're really looking for "he also burns himself" type realism, you could play with the relative timing of how your character does these things.
For example, most "detection" events in electromagnetic wave scanning or sensing systems happen at time intervals way, way, way too short for human neurons to fire. So your character may have some sort of independent "organ" that can be programmed to think or pre-think all this EM wave stuff, only without using human-type neurons. He downloads the scan plan into the organ, the organ does its thing, then he uploads the results into his brain.
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hmmm. I really don't want him to have too many advantages. The "human radar" has always been more along the lines of "spider sense" than "Three enemies detected at points alpha, charlie, and gamma sir!" I like "quotation marks." I use them "quite often." I've even been told it's "Somewhat obnoxious."
This is not the main character btw. If we think of the story from the 5 man band perspective, he'd be more like the lancer/big brother while the story is told from the perspective of either the chick, the smart guy, or the sixth ranger, depending on how you want to look at it.; at least that's the role she serves at the beginning. This is the guy who brings her along more than anyone else, and while their abilities are very different, his role is to teach her to set things up to play to her strengths. Therefore, it's important that his powers, while cool, not be so overwhelming that he's able to tear through opponents with little effort.
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Part of the thing with powers like this would be how fast the body would use up available energy.
Generating electrical power would be a BIG drain on the body's resources particularly the body's electrolytes.
These men and women would most likely NOT be able to do this for extended periods of time without some kind
of replenishment. A specialized drink or trail bar.
(Also would be a way to kill them - thoroughly mess up their electrolytes and they might just short circuit.)
I see no reason why some of them wouldn't be able to sense electromagnetic fields outside of the water.
Since the whole group was originally designed. The sensor types could have been a special bio-build - some few were enabled to be detectors so to speak.
One thing that I usually don't see with beings with powers is when they start getting them.
Having someone capable of generating large amounts of electricity who's 6 years old is rather scary. I've always thought that
powers shouldn't start showing up until the teen years but in a restricted form. Heaven knows an adolescent with
that kind of ability would be a real pain...literally. I think the body should grow into it as it grows into maturity.
That could give you a rogue - someone who assumed power early and as a result is REALLY strong and/or REALLY crazy because
their body just couldn't handle the demands of their power and growing up.
Hope that helps.
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A couple of sites that might help:
http://www.osha.gov/SLTC/etools/construction/electrical_incidents/eleccurrent.html
This is for your hand cannon idea:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wKlnMwuCZso
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TXECU3YKMfI&NR=1
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Ok, short version. Among the many speculations within my speculative fiction novel concept are a group of people who, among other general enhancements, can generate electricity using specialized organs in their body a la electric eels/rays etc. They were scientifically designed to assassinate godlike figures whose closest approximation would be a dresdenverse wizard not bound by the first law. Time has passed, their original purpose has been forgotten, and now they serve as super powered bodyguards and assassins for the nobles of an iron age style empire.
What I'm looking for is someone who understands the science well enough to tell me what will or won't work. If you can't help me there, I still wouldn't mind hearing from you since I generally work best when I can bounce ideas off multiple people.
Some of my questions include:
Why don't electric eels shock themselves? I've heard various theories about this, but nothing really convincing.
The eel's entire organ structure is packed into the head, and heavily insulated. The other 80% is made up of basic body structure and three electricity generating muscle bundles that control the flow of sodium within in such a way to generate bursts of electricity, basically like a battery. There is no path for the electric discharge through the skull, and the rest of the tissues are built to survive its own power levels without harm.
Would it be possible for a sixth sense similar to the Electric Eel or Shark's ability to sense bio electric fields to function outside an aquatic environment?
Yes, in theory. The Echidna Family, (most notably the platypus) are teh only known mammals to have the ability. The water makes for a far better conductor than air, but thats a problem of scale not design, and you are throwing scale out the window a bit for this anyway. Its also worth noting that the same gene responsible for electrolocation in the facial skin of sharks is present and actively affecting facial features in humans.
Could electromagnets be reliably weaponized in the form of armor, such as a bracer? What I mean by this, is could you design a solenoid to fit inside a piece of armor or weapon that could be activated in various ways to either attract or repel other ferromagnetic materials? Could said solenoid also function as a small, but functional gauss cannon?
Again, yes in theory, but the realism of the actual energy requirements would be stretching realism.
How would someone actually kill via electrocution if that were the aim? Would it require multiple contact points, or could a circuit be formed using a single contact point such as a hand placed flat against the other person?
Brain, Heart, Or Massive tissue damage. Brain and heart are both very fragile electrical systems that can be shorted out. The last requires extremely high Current (the amount of electrons in flow) as opposed to voltage (the pressure difference that is causing them to move).
Remember: high current is what causes the heat, high voltage is what lets it jump.
Assuming a person could generate a powerful and sustainable electric current inside himself, would he be able to create a magnetic field strong enough to affect ferromagnetic materials such as swords and armor enough to be of use in a combat situation?
Assuming the power level is there, sure, but they would need to be modified to spin the electricity around material properly. The basic rule thumb (hehe, punny) is that if you make a phonzy thumb, the electricity needs to spin in the direction of your fingers to create a magnetic field in the direction of your thumb, and vice verse.
How do magnetic materials actually function, and what determines which side attracts and which repel?
The short answer is that when the molecules within the material all align in one direction, all their individual charges add up to a big one, and that passing electricity around/through a material is one way to accomplish that alignment. you'll need wikipedia for a long answer.
What is the difference between static and current electricity, and would it be possible to achieve "miniature lighting" affects from organs similar to those on the Electric Eel?
Its not a matter of scale, its about the type of flow. All electricity really is is an imbalance of electrons in a bunch of molecules, moving to try to even back out again, just like an imbalance of water levels will flow through a tube to try to level out. Static electricity is when a natural buildup of charges on one side of a barrier (usually air) breaks through and reaches equilibrium in a shot. Current (which just means electric flow) occurs when the flow is slowed down, or else when something is maintaining the imbalance (like continued chemical reactions inside a battery).
What I think you meant by "Current Electricity" though is AC power, what you get out of the wall. That mean alternating current, and is different from DC current (ie. static electricity, battery power, Eels, etc) in that it reverses direction back and forth. DC power always flows in one direction, and thus always requires a complete loop. AC power is created using rotating magnetic fields, and as a result shifts direction back and forth at high speed, which gives it some differing properties. The advantages of one vs the other have been argued literally since it was invented (see Telsa, Edison and the War of the Currents), but for your purposes there is one big thing: DC Current requires a return loop, which is why tasers shoot two wires; AC can flow as long as you are in contact to the Earth (termed "grounded") which can soak up all the electricity you could ever create; the electrocuting water cannons they use for crowd control work on AC. DC can use ground as the return path instead of a 2nd wire, but its trickier.
Assuming they could make the voltage level theyd need (around 1000V/mm iirc), mini-lightning effects would be possible so long as he can create a loop. So from finger to finger would work, but would only use the tissues in his hands. Hand to hand could work, but then the current is using a path through his chest/heart, which may make for a fun danger, but something he could train to overcome i expect (eels have remarkable control of power intensity and flow).
Most of these are designed to ensure I don't embarrass myself too badly when I write my action sequences, but I'd love to hear any tidbits you could offer, such as strange side effects, dietary requirements, etc.
People get caught up in the dietary needs of superpowers, and forget that its not a straight calorie mechanism. For an Eel-man to generate the equivalent of a 1000 calories of electricity, he wouldn't necessarily need to have consumed enough eggs to equal that energy and then digest it in the same way you would for blood-sugar. Instead, he'd need to make sure his diet included the massive amounts of sodium and whatever other chemicals are present in the biological battery tissues inside him. Superman is solar powered, which is why he can lift buildings without consuming a cattle farm every day; it's a completely different biological method and system.
Edited for scientific accuracy
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The eel's entire organ structure is packed into the head, and heavily insulated. The other 80% is made up of basic body structure and three electricity generating muscle bundles that control the flow of sodium within in such a way to generate bursts of electricity, basically like a battery. There is no path for the electric discharge through the skull, and the rest of the tissues are built to survive its own power levels without harm.
Yes, in theory. The Echidna Family, (most notably the platypus) are teh only known mammals to have the ability. The water makes for a far better conductor than air, but thats a problem of scale not design, and you are throwing scale out the window a bit for this anyway. Its also worth noting that the same gene responsible for electrolocation in the facial skin of sharks is present and actively affecting facial features in humans.
Again, yes in theory, but the realism of the actual energy requirements would be stretching realism. Brain, Heart, Or Massive tissue damage. Brain and heart are both very fragile electrical systems that can be shorted out. The last requires extremely high Current (the amount of electrons in flow) as opposed to current (the pressure difference that is causing them to move.
Remember: high current is what causes the heat, high voltage is what lets it jump.
Assuming the power level is there, sure, but they would need to be modified to spin the electricity around material properly. The basic rule thumb (hehe, punny) is that if you make a phonzy thumb, the electricity needs to spin in the direction of your fingers to create a magnetic field in the direction of your thumb, and vice verse.
The short answer is that when the molecules within the material all align in one direction, all their individual charges add up to a big one, and that passing electricity around/through a material is one way to accomplish that alignment. you'll need wikipedia for a long answer.
Its not a matter of scale, its about the type of flow. All electricity really is is an imbalance of electrons in a bunch of molecules, moving to try to even back out again, just like an imbalance of water levels will flow through a tube to try to level out. Static electricity is when a natural buildup of charges on one side of a barrier (usually air) breaks through and reaches equilibrium in a shot. Current (which just means electric flow) occurs when the flow is slowed down, or else when something is maintaining the imbalance (like continued chemical reactions inside a battery).
What I think you meant by "Current Electricity" though is AC power, what you get out of the wall. That mean alternating current, and is different from DC current (ie. static electricity, battery power, Eels, etc) in that it reverses direction back and forth. DC power always flows in one direction, and thus always requires a complete loop. AC power is created using rotating magnetic fields, and as a result shifts direction back and forth at high speed, which gives it some differing properties. The advantages of one vs the other have been argued literally since it was invented (see Telsa, Edison and the War of the Currents), but for your purposes there is one big thing: DC Current requires a return loop, which is why tasers shoot two wires; AC can flow as long as you are in contact to the Earth (termed "grounded") which can soak up all the electricity you could ever create; the electrocuting water cannons they use for crowd control work on AC. DC can use ground as the return path instead of a 2nd wire, but its trickier.
Assuming they could make the voltage level theyd need (around 1000V/mm iirc), mini-lightning effects would be possible so long as he can create a loop. So from finger to finger would work, but would only use the tissues in his hands. Hand to hand could work, but then the current is using a path through his chest/heart, which may make for a fun danger, but something he could train to overcome i expect (eels have remarkable control of power intensity and flow).
People get caught up in the dietary needs of superpowers, and forget that its not a straight calorie mechanism. For an Eel-man to generate the equivalent of a 1000 calories of electricity, he wouldn't necessarily need to have consumed enough eggs to equal that energy and then digest it in the same way you would for blood-sugar. Instead, he'd need to make sure his diet included the massive amounts of sodium and whatever other chemicals are present in the biological battery tissues inside him. Superman is solar powered, which is why he can lift buildings without consuming a cattle farm every day; it's a completely different biological method and system.
I... I think I love you! Checking out the war of the currents now.
For clarification's sake, the technology used to create these guys was advanced far beyond anything we can imagine today, Nanomachines on the subatomic scale for starters. However, there had already been one apocolyptic-scale loss of information, so the uses they were putting this technology to was comparatively primitive. If this were set in the Star Wars universe, it would be something akin to the sandpeople of tatooine somehow discovering the cloning facilities from the episode two we all wish had never existed.
Because of this, I'm not terribly concerned with energy generation or output. I'm also figuring that the mechanisms behind his gauntlets is similarly advanced, allowing for much greater efficiency than we could produce today.
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Something interesting that may or may not be of any use to you...
There is an anime called Darker than Black (Available on netflix if you have the streaming service) where the main character has the ability to kill with electric current. He uses a dagger fitted to a thin metal cable that he throws at people either wrapping them up or pumping in current if they get stabbed. He gets stumped a few times by people who know about him and wear thick rubber boots. Its got a fantastic concept for the show and how people use powers but since its already taken maybe it would give you a few ideas about how it got used in various situations. Its not always 100% accurate but it might be something to stir your ideas up.
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There is a YA book called The Monster Blood Tattoo, it the world setting there are monster hunters that undergo a rather horrific surgery that allows them to channel electricity like an eel. The one that we meet in the novel fights with a long flexible metal rod that she would strike out with it and send a current through the rod.
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There is a YA book called The Monster Blood Tattoo, it the world setting there are monster hunters that undergo a rather horrific surgery that allows them to channel electricity like an eel. The one that we meet in the novel fights with a long flexible metal rod that she would strike out with it and send a current through the rod.
Using ground as the return path?
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Using ground as the return path?
it doesn't state but that would make since i guess.
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it doesn't state but that would make since i guess.
For realism's sake you really want both poles of your character's internal battery to make contact with the target, especially if you wish to pass large, killing or disabling currents through. Ground return paths have quite large resistances and a lot* of parasitic capacitance as well.
*on the order of .75F
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When she whacked things with her weapon it wasn't eminently life threatening, but left a nasty burn, she had to whack the monster a lot and had help from her compatriot as well.
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That's a pretty narrow window for a writer to dance around in.
The plot seems to me caught between the pedantic part of the audience that screams "if her weapon is only as good as a taser with one wire removed, how can it leave burns?" and the other, squee-starved part of the audience that's yelling "Why do I want to read about a character that can't even leave a -permanent- dueling scar, let alone kill something?"
Does that make sense?
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I don't know enough biology to know if its possible, but from an electrical standpoint it would take less energy to build a killing blow if the hero had two seperate organs that held potential, one building negative potental while the other builds positive. If each organ was 'wired' to only one hand then they would return to neutral every time one of these people touched their hands together (or touched both hands to something with low enough resistance to serve as a conductor.) This would have the benifit of opening up certain culteral norms that could develop in response like:
Everyone shakes hands right to left so as to ground each other out.
Whenever one of these people is defeated, the victor cuts off one of the loser's hands so he can no longer arc.
It is considered polite fo a guest to bring his/her hands together (think Taoism/Buddism) before entering a dwelling as a demonstration that the person is grounded.
There is a thriving glove market that includes 'secret' conductive plates that don't match across the gloves so a person can arc through their gloves or that look like flesh so an assassin can put his/her hands together and still maintain a charge.
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I don't know enough biology to know if its possible, but from an electrical standpoint it would take less energy to build a killing blow if the hero had two seperate organs that held potential, one building negative potental while the other builds positive.
There is no such thing as 'just negative' and 'just positive'. Something is at a negative potential only in reference to some other potential. Potential is just that: the potential to accomplish work by transferring charge from one place to another. One always has to specify a "from" and a "to", as in "negative with respect to" and "positive with respect to".
Put another way: every battery, every fuel cell has to have *two* terminals.
Quantus had a pretty good explanation above of having multiple organs that can be biochemically charged in parallel
+ -||- -
+ -||- -
and then discharged in series ++ -||-||- --
If each organ was 'wired' to only one hand and to the other organ then they would return to neutral every time one of these people touched their hands together
Yes. With the above correction, this would happen. It would waste the work done in creating the charges in the first place, but they would return to neutral.
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Comprex,
You do realize that 'two seperate organs' compose the cathode and anode, right? By physically seperating them you increase the isolation resistance, effectively increasing the capacitance and allowing for more powerfull attacks.
If the organs were wired together then they would be constantly discharging the potental, making them worthless. They must be isolated until the circuit is closed, which would be done by connecting the 'loose' conductors in the hands (be it by clapping or grasping someone/thing to be arced through.)
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"wired" together may be too specific a term, as they would need to be connected but not necessarily by something electrically conductive. The electric Eel accomplishes its build-up by having control of sodium and potassium ducts to create mini-batteries, more or less. I imagine if this is being scaled up to an upright, non-aquatic creature, there would be some sort of adapted circulatory system facilitating this transfer.
From Wikipedia:
Electrocytes, electroplaques or electroplaxes are cells used by rays, electric eels and other electric fish for electrogenesis and electroreception. They are flat disk-like cells that are positively charged on one side and negatively charged on the other. Electric eels have several thousand of these cells stacked, each producing 0.15V. The cells function by pumping positive sodium and potassium ions out of the cell via transport proteins powered by ATP. Postsynaptically, electrocytes work much like muscle cells. They have nicotinic acetylcholine receptors. These cells are used in research because of their resemblance to nerve-muscle junctions.
The stack of electrocytes has long been compared to a voltaic pile, and may even have inspired the invention of the battery, since the analogy was already noted by Alessandro Volta.[3] While the electric organ is structurally similar to a battery, its cycle of operation is more like a Marx generator, in that the individual elements are slowly charged in parallel, then suddenly and nearly simultaneously discharged in series to produce a high voltage pulse.
[edit] Firing
To discharge the electrocytes at the correct time, the electric eel uses its pacemaker nucleus, a nucleus of pacemaker neurons. When an electric eel spots its prey, the pacemaker neurons fire and acetylcholine is subsequently released from electromotor neurons to the electrocytes, resulting in an electric organ discharge.
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You do realize that 'two seperate organs' compose the cathode and anode, right?
There is no such thing as a cathode by itself. There is no such thing as an anode by itself. Until you connect them internally, each organ will have its own cathode and its anode both. In order to have a meaningful outside cathode and a meaningful outside anode , one at each hand, you have to connect the organs internally.
As quantus explained, that connection can be parallel or series.
By physically seperating them you increase the isolation resistance, effectively increasing the capacitance
FWIW, increasing physical separation _decreases_ capacitance.
If the organs were wired together then they would be constantly discharging the potental, making them worthless.
Sorry, no. Series connection does not discharge the potential. It allows the apparent potential viewed from outside to be greater than that available from just one cell or organ.
You can see this in 9V cells (which are just 6 1.5v cells connected end-to-end). You can see this D-cell mag-lites.
They must be isolated until the circuit is closed, which would be done by connecting the 'loose' conductors in the hands (be it by clapping or grasping someone/thing to be arced through.)
The -circuit- has to be closed. Meaning you need to make a full loop. Meaning that having Hand+-||-insulator-||--Hand will do absolutely -nothing- when you put the hands together because there is no circuit.
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I... I think I love you! Checking out the war of the currents now.
For clarification's sake, the technology used to create these guys was advanced far beyond anything we can imagine today, Nanomachines on the subatomic scale for starters. However, there had already been one apocolyptic-scale loss of information, so the uses they were putting this technology to was comparatively primitive. If this were set in the Star Wars universe, it would be something akin to the sandpeople of tatooine somehow discovering the cloning facilities from the episode two we all wish had never existed.
Because of this, I'm not terribly concerned with energy generation or output. I'm also figuring that the mechanisms behind his gauntlets is similarly advanced, allowing for much greater efficiency than we could produce today.
Just one other little thing, Nanomachines on the Subatomic Scale doesn't really work very well, because the line between matter and energy (and space and time, depending on the theory you believe) gets pretty blurry. Subatomic scale is basically blurring into the quantum scale. While it could be done in science fiction terms I guess, they would be operating on a completely different set of rules than normal physics, electricity, etc.
Now, Atomic scale machines are perfectly possible, and is in fact a good description of what you find inside living cells. Here (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sa563MdIiXE)is a great video to get a sense of the sale in a cell. Theres a shorter one around edited to music instead of the lecture, but this one has more cool detail, IMO.
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Just one other little thing, Nanomachines on the Subatomic Scale doesn't really work very well, because the line between matter and energy (and space and time, depending on the theory you believe) gets pretty blurry. Subatomic scale is basically blurring into the quantum scale. While it could be done in science fiction terms I guess, they would be operating on a completely different set of rules than normal physics, electricity, etc.
This is not "hard" science fiction, by which I mean a future we can prognosticate using scientific advances we can foresee, but not yet accomplish. I do believe that as humanity continues to expand the frontiers of scientific knowledge, many of the problems we currently see will be circumvented through unforseeable advances and discoveries, but I'm not trying to prognosticate, only to create an interesting backdrop.
This is all just background information, barely any of which will ever be explained in the story itself, and even then it will be seen only through legend and metaphor. I merely want to have a better understanding of the forces involved for my own sake as a writer so that I can make the willing suspension of disbelief easier to maintain for my readers.
There is an anime called Darker than Black (Available on netflix if you have the streaming service) where the main character has the ability to kill with electric current.
This was actually what started me thinking about electricity as a potential power. The more I think about it, the more I think the fighting style and abilities will be remarkably similar.
I also wanted to give a big thank you to everyone keeping this discussion alive. You've all been a HUGE help for me already, and while I rarely understand all the terms you're throwing around, you definitely have given me a much more distinct starting point for my own research. Thank you very much.