The primary focus when we're looking at pushing and pulling on metals with iron and steel always seems to be on the transfer of force, but I think there is reasonable evidence to suggest that when someone pushes or pulls on a metal they also transfer friction as if their person was physically touching the metal.
When a piece of metal is caught between to allomancers pushing on it at the same time, that piece of metal seems to get locked into place until the opposed pushing situation is resolved. If no friction was transferred there would be nothing to stop gravity pulling that piece of metal to the ground at a regular rate as if it had been dropped. However we see when Kelsier and Vin have a pushing match on a coin that the coin stayed suspended in the air for several seconds, long enough for them both to go from regular pushing, to flaring, to Vin being pushed a considerable distance backwards.
In theory the pushing match could have been started when Vin-Coin-Kelsier were not in a perfectly straight line, and the downward force of gravity was being counteracted by the slight upward component of the two pushes with the coin being slightly above the line between Vin and Kelsier, but if that were the case then when they started flaring their metals and the force increased the vertical component would have overcome gravity and the coin would have shot upwards completely breaking the alignment.
If friction is transferred it opens up some potentially very useful options for using pushes and pulls, particularly for someone with the ability to push and pull. If a mistborn were to push and pull on a coin at the same time they would be able to make it levitate in place, or if they were to do the same thing on a piece of metal touching the ground whilst they themselves were airborne they would be able to make themselves hover in place.
Very interested to see if this has ever been confirmed or denied in any WOBs I have missed, or if there are potential alternative explanations to what is going on with the pushing match situation.
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isabigfish
The primary focus when we're looking at pushing and pulling on metals with iron and steel always seems to be on the transfer of force, but I think there is reasonable evidence to suggest that when someone pushes or pulls on a metal they also transfer friction as if their person was physically touching the metal.
When a piece of metal is caught between to allomancers pushing on it at the same time, that piece of metal seems to get locked into place until the opposed pushing situation is resolved. If no friction was transferred there would be nothing to stop gravity pulling that piece of metal to the ground at a regular rate as if it had been dropped. However we see when Kelsier and Vin have a pushing match on a coin that the coin stayed suspended in the air for several seconds, long enough for them both to go from regular pushing, to flaring, to Vin being pushed a considerable distance backwards.
In theory the pushing match could have been started when Vin-Coin-Kelsier were not in a perfectly straight line, and the downward force of gravity was being counteracted by the slight upward component of the two pushes with the coin being slightly above the line between Vin and Kelsier, but if that were the case then when they started flaring their metals and the force increased the vertical component would have overcome gravity and the coin would have shot upwards completely breaking the alignment.
If friction is transferred it opens up some potentially very useful options for using pushes and pulls, particularly for someone with the ability to push and pull. If a mistborn were to push and pull on a coin at the same time they would be able to make it levitate in place, or if they were to do the same thing on a piece of metal touching the ground whilst they themselves were airborne they would be able to make themselves hover in place.
Very interested to see if this has ever been confirmed or denied in any WOBs I have missed, or if there are potential alternative explanations to what is going on with the pushing match situation.
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