Lesson Three

[Malefact]

[ModNote: Following Lesson Two and Assignment Two.]

In this lesson we shall look at levitation and flight and how these are achieved.

What precisely is levitation? It is the act of stopping your mass from interacting with gravitons. These gravitons predominantly come from the Earth. Once this interactivity is removed, you can happily float away.

Anything which has mass emits gravitons. Gravitons are one of four types of fundamental particles. Another type is the photon - which comprises electromagnetic radiation (e.g. visible light). Anything which has mass also absorbs gravitons. Therefore, in order to levitate, we can either stop the Earth emitting gravitons (which is a rather large task!!!) or we can stop ourselves absorbing gravitons (rather more realistic!).

Point of interest: A rather interesting, if non-obvious, property of gravitons is their direction in time. Take two bodies, A and B. In forward direction, Body A emits a graviton which is absorbed by Body B. This, of course, makes the two of them move further apart. In reverse direction, however, they move closer together. This means that gravitons are travelling backwards through time, which is why they haven't been detected yet.

Consequently, we need two spells for levitation; one at the start (which is, in fact, the end) and one at the end (which is, in fact, the start). The second one will stop us absorbing gravitons (reversing the direction of time, this corresponds to us emitting gravitons) and the first one counteracts this. We do need a spell to counteract because dispelling a spell that is not time-parallel often has unpleasant side-effects.

Next time, I will describe the theory behind these two spells and give details on how to create them, plus information on ready-made ones and their common aliases.

[Kulaemii]

(Nicely rounded up - I see these lessons are going well)

[ringmasterrob]

I see, I see. You certainly know how to explain your magic

[Malefact]

Kulaemii said:

(Nicely rounded up - I see these lessons are going well)

Thankyou very much, Headmistress!

[Malefact]

ringmasterrob said:

I see, I see. You certainly know how to explain your magic

Many thanks, indeed!

If anyone has any questions, though, please ask. I'm here to help, after all!

[ringmasterrob]

Your most welcome Malefact, I always believed in credit where its due. I have one question. What will be our assignment for this topic?

[Malefact]

You'll have to wait and see.

[Malefact]

OK, last time we looked at the principals behind levitation; the act of stopping ourselves absorbing gravitons. Gravitons, however, travel backwards through time, which complicates matters somewhat.

As mentioned before, two spells are required. The first spell to be cast counteracts the second spell, cast at the end. Reversing the direction of time makes the second spell the initiator. It prevents us emitting gravitons (in reverse-direction; in forward-direction it is the absorption of gravitons, as defined earlier).

Anyway, these pairs of spells are available ready-made, as with most spells. The most common alias pair is MASS / SUSPEND. The two spells are time-linked. SUSPEND will prevent the absorption of gravitons from the moment it is cast, back to the moment MASS is cast. MASS is a classic QEM spell because it forces the universe to accept the certainty of the casting of SUSPEND later on, which is why the whole thing works. If there were doubt about whether SUSPEND would be cast (anything could happen in the meantime, after all) then the system simply would not work.

SUSPEND is also a rather complex spell in that it works backwards in time. The act of casting it is the final *effect* of a sequence of events whose cause is the MASS spell - which, in turn, creates a Certainty System** to make the whole thing work.

Cutting a long story short, in order to levitate, cast MASS. You will then become weightless. Once you have finished, cast SUSPEND and you will regain your mass.

**A Certainty System is a group of events with probability 1 - i.e. they WILL happen, no matter what. In the universe, no event has this probability, hence the existence of parallel universes, which we have already looked into via SHUNT. The events in a Certainty System have just one outcome, which is guaranteed. The advantages of this is that you can make things happen that wouldn't happen in reality due to their being a lack of certainty as to whether they actually have happened.

In the event of the MASS/SUSPEND Certainty System, the casting of SUSPEND is guaranteed in order for its effects to filter back in time to meet the casting of MASS. A block of future time is predetermined in this way to ensure that the magic works.


Next time (the final installment of this particular lesson thread) we will examine precisely what these spells do to achieve their effects. Being so complex, they are compositions of several spells and chants. You need to know what these are in order to recreate them from scratch. In the final exam, you will not be allowed to use ready-made spells. The only exceptions will be a small list of spells given to you from which you must select the ones you feel are appropriate to a particular question.

[ringmasterrob]

so I get it, that has to be your best lesson so far malefact

[Malefact]

Many thanks!

[Snowwiewolf]

wow! You're better at explaining than my physics teacher *hugs*

[ringmasterrob]

Physics, what a bore, Malefacts lessons are more interesting than Physics ;D

[Malefact]

Thanks very much indeed! Me's very touched.

A bit of Physics is involved in this subject but it's spiced up considerably because of mixing it with magic.

[ringmasterrob]

although we did shoot bottle rockets in one physics lesson...

[Snowwiewolf]

I like physics mostly bicause we sit and read instead running around like headless chickens and we made candy at physics class and a crystal of somesort.
I agree Mallys lessons are better than any of the 'real' worlds lessons