Alchemy

[sonic id furreh!!!]

hey peeps
ai wuz just wonderin if any uv u new anythin about alchemy
cuz well ai'm into this kinda stuff

[Sleet]

Other than that it is an obsolete science?

Did you read the Wikipedia article yet? That's the first place I always look.

[Beagle]

hey peeps
ai wuz just wonderin if any uv u new anythin about alchemy
cuz well ai'm into this kinda stuff

Don't know much about it, but I've heard there are books on it. I think they're all fantasy fiction, but it never hurts to look. Check the library, or google it.

[sonic id furreh!!!]

Don't know much about it, but I've heard there are books on it. I think they're all fantasy fiction, but it never hurts to look. Check the library, or google it.

yah ai've googled it befor but ai just got ah bunch uv junk ¬_¬

[44R0NM10]

Well, I know alchemy on a basic leval...by that, I know what it means. I'm not sure how true the full metal alchemist manga is to alchemy...but I'm sure it's the art of turning an item into gold.

Full metal Alchemist says it is the art of turning an item into something else of equal value. For example, turning the a concrete floor into a concrete wall. The exact amount of concrete that is removed from the floor goes into the wall however. As of how true that is to the magical sense, I'm not sure.

It's kinda like chemistry and physics, with variations. I'm quite sure it is fictional however, I have an open mind if you'd like to persuade me otherwise.

[Beagle]

Well, I know alchemy on a basic leval...by that, I know what it means. I'm not sure how true the full metal alchemist manga is to alchemy...but I'm sure it's the art of turning an item into gold.

Full metal Alchemist says it is the art of turning an item into something else of equal value. For example, turning the a concrete floor into a concrete wall. The exact amount of concrete that is removed from the floor goes into the wall however. As of how true that is to the magical sense, I'm not sure.

It's kinda like chemistry and physics, with variations. I'm quite sure it is fictional however, I have an open mind if you'd like to persuade me otherwise.

I have a friend that watches Full Metal Alchemist.
I thought it involved potions and such. I have no idea though.

[ctcmjh]

Hey Sonic, I'm going to have to ask you to please type coherently. These questions could also be easily answered with a quick Google search. In fact, here you go.

[Dissension]

Transmutation is only possible atomically; chemical transmutation, the basis of the sadly-decrepit world of alchemy, is impossible.

[Shyanne]

Didn't they use this back before science was around and it never worked? I have done it alot in vidya games and it works there! So it must work here too

[Sleet]

Alchemy is to chemistry as astrology is to astronomy. It's basically like chemistry, only without as much scientific backing. It did "work" in some sense; alchemists discovered phosphorus I'm pretty sure. It just didn't do many of the things we now know are impossible (or close enough to impossible.)

[Liam]

It was the precursor of chemistry, more grounded in mythology than scientific method.

Transmutation is only possible atomically

Subatomically, to be precise.

Making money with it is hard, though.

[sonic id furreh!!!]

Hey Sonic, I'm going to have to ask you to please type coherently. These questions could also be easily answered with a quick Google search. In fact, here you go.

ugh god, fine i'll talk like a normal human being, GOD!!
and thnx

[Flamboyant-Pencil]

Well, I can make a potion of Restore Fatigue if you give me cheese and a loaf of bread.

[Teh Brawler]

Well, I can make a potion of Restore Fatigue if you give me cheese and a loaf of bread.

How about I give you a slice of cheese and a wedge of cheese and you make me a resist fire potion instead.

[Liam]

I can transmute the air into a fetid gas.

Just give me a fork and a can of beans.

[sonic id furreh!!!]

I can transmute the air into a fetid gas.

Just give me a fork and a can of beans.

heh that's kind of funny

[Flamboyant-Pencil]

Beans, beans, the magical fruit, the more you eat..

[ctcmjh]

Beans, beans, the magical fruit, the more you eat..

The more vital nutrients your body absorbs.

[Flamboyant-Pencil]

The more vital nutrients you absorb, the better you feel, so eat some beans with every meal.

[Typhon]

This sounds similar to a book iv heard about. Apparently the human race has advanced so far in technology that all of humanity is immortal, and people have the power to create suns. Like whoa, wonder if we would reach that far? Or would the sun explode in our faces before then?

[Sleet]

Human immortality* is theoretically possible, and by the time the sun dies, if our race is still around, it no doubt would have the technology to colonize another star.

*Immortality as in having no "expiration date," not never dying. Sooner or later everyone is going to die of something, no matter how advanced we get.

[Typhon]

Human immortality* is theoretically possible, and by the time the sun dies, if our race is still around, it no doubt would have the technology to colonize another star.

*Immortality as in having no "expiration date," not never dying. Sooner or later everyone is going to die of something, no matter how advanced we get.

Actually immortality as in not dying is a possible concept. Some people even regard aging as a disease! Scientifically the only reason humans age is that the telomeres at the ends of chromosomes get shorter every time they duplicate. Cancerous cells don't have telomeres that get shorter as time goes on, thats why just keep growing. So if scientist can figure out a way to keep these telomeres from growing shorter human immortality in conceivable. Immortality can also be achieved by warping time and space. If one could travel at an infinite speed then that person would never age.

Some could argue that creating clones of yourself counts as being immortal but i guess its how you conceive what immortality really is then.

There is also talk about stasis fields, time dilation and suspended animation to achieve immortality.

So given enough time human beings could conceivably conquer natural death.

Just like the infinite monkey theorem. Give a monkey a keyboard and enough time, the monkey will eventually type out all of Shakespeare's plays.

[Sleet]

Actually immortality as in not dying is a possible concept. Some people even regard aging as a disease! Scientifically the only reason humans age is that the telomeres at the ends of chromosomes get shorter every time they duplicate. Cancerous cells don't have telomeres that get shorter as time goes on, thats why just keep growing. So if scientist can figure out a way to keep these telomeres from growing shorter human immortality in conceivable.

Telomere shortening is not the only cause of old age. "Aging" is a combination of a number of factors, all of which combine to make people look older than die. This is why old people who have very healthy lifestyles not only live longer but also appear to age slower. Inevitable telomeric death awaits us all the way at around 150 (if I remember correctly), so we usually die of other things first. If we ever get medical technology up to that level but don't find a way to lengthen telomeres, any person with a sufficiently healthy diet would be a ticking time bomb, whereas everyone else would die like normal.

Immortality can also be achieved by warping time and space. If one could travel at an infinite speed then that person would never age.

The speed of light as as fast as you can go, but because of relativity it's as fast as you have to go. That said, it's impossible to actually reach anyway. That's not an "eventually we can do it" thing. It is a physical impossibility.

Some could argue that creating clones of yourself counts as being immortal but i guess its how you conceive what immortality really is then.

Even if you could do that, that still wouldn't be "you." There's a lot more to a person than his or her genes. You can't clone a person's soul. Whether "soul" is literal or figurative depends on one's beliefs, but you can never get your experiences and other biological and psychological stimuli back.

There is also talk about stasis fields, time dilation and suspended animation to achieve immortality.

So given enough time human beings could conceivably conquer natural death.

Stasis fields are pure sci-fi. In time dilation the person will experience time like normal within his or her own reference frame so very little would occur except possibly put someone in a Futurama situation. In suspended animation such as cryogenics, the person would not experience anything so it's as if they die right then and there and then at some point in the future they could potentially continue their life.

Just like the infinite monkey theorem. Give a monkey a keyboard and enough time, the monkey will eventually type out all of Shakespeare's plays.

But given enough time said monkeys can never break natural laws, so things like speed-of-light travel will never be invented.

Interesting you should mention the monkeys, because they're an illustration of why no matter the technology we can't live forever: given no death of old age, we have infinite time for something to kill us, whether it's a bullet or a truck or anything else.

[Typhon]

The speed of light as as fast as you can go, but because of relativity it's as fast as you have to go. That said, it's impossible to actually reach anyway. That's not an "eventually we can do it" thing. It is a physical impossibility.

It is for now. Its impossible to know whether or not something faster exist. Sure it violates physical law, but who ever said physical law cannot be violated in itself? I bet one day some fundamental law of earth is going to be broken. Or disproved.

And saying stasis fields is pure sci fi is like how people back in the 1800's would think about everything we have today. Though i do admit its really far fetched.

Saying that monkeys can be killed by many other things in an infinite time brings in unnecessary variables. Then one could also argue that politics and humanitarian rights groups would never allow technology this advanced to exist in the first place.

[Sleet]

It is for now. Its impossible to know whether or not something faster exist. Sure it violates physical law, but who ever said physical law cannot be violated in itself? I bet one day some fundamental law of earth is going to be broken. Or disproved.

Physical law can never be violated. Ever. If it could it would not be physical law. It can only be found incorrect, at which point it never was physical law in the first place and we just thought it was. The physics behind the impossibility of FTL travel are very well verified through experimentation to the point where that law being disproven has a probability that is effectively (though not technically) zero.

[Typhon]

It is for now. Its impossible to know whether or not something faster exist. Sure it violates physical law, but who ever said physical law cannot be violated in itself? I bet one day some fundamental law of earth is going to be broken. Or disproved.

Physical law can never be violated. Ever. If it could it would not be physical law. It can only be found incorrect, at which point it never was physical law in the first place and we just thought it was. The physics behind the impossibility of FTL travel are very well verified through experimentation to the point where that law being disproven has a probability that is effectively (though not technically) zero.

If any law was irrefutable then paradoxes of any form could not exist. But they do. Anything can be proven wrong, even laws.

[Sleet]

Paradoxes form from logic, not nature. In physics there are no paradoxes. There are natural laws that are completely unbreakable. By definition. The laws can never be wrong; we can only be wrong about them. Our theories don't get broken, they get updated. They are usually only updated in subtle ways that only come into effect on extremely small or extremely large scales. The chance of the existence of a hole in the theory of relativity that would allow human-scale objects to travel faster than the speed of light is an astronomical long-shot.

[Typhon]

Paradoxes form from logic, not nature. In physics there are no paradoxes. There are natural laws that are completely unbreakable. By definition. The laws can never be wrong; we can only be wrong about them. Our theories don't get broken, they get updated. They are usually only updated in subtle ways that only come into effect on extremely small or extremely large scales. The chance of the existence of a hole in the theory of relativity that would allow human-scale objects to travel faster than the speed of light is an astronomical long-shot.

But if William Shatner can do it anyone can!

[Alex M.]

Chemistry is more fun!
Why?
You can make things blow only with sodium and water ñ.ñ
or dry ice and water!
Making a big reaction with 3 acids and lime! (Trust me, never get to close to the reaction )

And if you can with the smells you are ok with it.

[Psykeout]

Human immortality* is theoretically possible, and by the time the sun dies, if our race is still around, it no doubt would have the technology to colonize another star.

*Immortality as in having no "expiration date," not never dying. Sooner or later everyone is going to die of something, no matter how advanced we get.

man from earth.
YOU WILL WATCH.

and i know the can use hydrogen to turn lead into gold, but its very expensive and a bit impractical.

basicly, alchemy is the altering of a substance into another substance. ex, lead to gold. its a more basic and primative form of chemistry.
or at least, this is my understanding
(is a fourteen year old, and is not very qualified to be explaining things of this nature to anyone)

[Sleet]

Alchemy is basically the exact same thing as chemistry, only before the scientific method really got a hold of it. So it involved a lot of ridiculous things that eventually didn't survive experimentation, but were the foundation of a lot of alchemy. That's not to say that alchemy was pure hogwash or anything. A lot of great chemical discoveries were made by alchemists. Alchemy is basically just "dirty" chemistry, if you will. It's only around the scientific revolution that we cleaned it up into what is now chemistry.

Transmutation is only part of alchemy. And yes, we can turn lead into gold, but it takes a lot more than just hydrogen. And it is, of course, absurdly expensive and virtually useless for experimentation, so we don't really ever do it. But we can do it, and I think that's pretty cool.

[Psykeout]

Alchemy is basically the exact same thing as chemistry, only before the scientific method really got a hold of it. So it involved a lot of ridiculous things that eventually didn't survive experimentation, but were the foundation of a lot of alchemy. That's not to say that alchemy was pure hogwash or anything. A lot of great chemical discoveries were made by alchemists. Alchemy is basically just "dirty" chemistry, if you will. It's only around the scientific revolution that we cleaned it up into what is now chemistry.

Transmutation is only part of alchemy. And yes, we can turn lead into gold, but it takes a lot more than just hydrogen. And it is, of course, absurdly expensive and virtually useless for experimentation, so we don't really ever do it. But we can do it, and I think that's pretty cool.

the function of a sleet: to be smarter than you no matter what and prove it. :3

JK, GUYS.

[Sleet]

*bows* I do my best. :3

[CaptainPea]

This got posted in Nonsense a while ago, and seems at least a little pertinent:

[Wolf]

Full Metal Alchemist (The show) is actually rather true to the whole "Equal value" thing. But the whole circle thing doesn't work. People only thought it would.

[Karl]

Alchemy is the ancestor of chemistry. It was used in middle ages. It wasn't popular, but some of researches that were done by alchemists were later expanded in chemistry.

Also in alchemy were symbols, that in future evolved. For example, they had symbols for fire, water ( today H2O), earth and wind.

Maybe my info in not too rich in informations, but I'm not too much into chemistry. That's all I know