Simplifying the properties of matter for the Alchemical aspects of a magic system.

I need some very real science help with an element of my magic system.

The basis of my magic system is elemental glyph that manifest on a person soul.

They glyphs are...

Fire(Heat). Lightning. Light.

Dynamis: physical force.

Aether: that which lies between matter and energy.

Air. Water. Flesh. Wood. Earth.

For most casters manipulation of material elements is entails moving and reshaping their element, however those that possess a transmutation sub-glyph can alter the properties of their element.

I didn't want to take the easy path and just say that a material can just be magiced into possessing different qualities. I wanted to actually be able to describe how matter had been changed. My problem is that the actual list of the physical and chemical properties of matter is rather long and I don't understand most of them or their ramifications;even if I did It'd still be a long list.

I Want to do is simplify that list of traits in a much smaller number of attributes.

For example I simplified the properties of ductility/elasticity/malleability into the attribute of Plastiscity.

I also came up with other attributes that I wasn't able clearly map to properties of matter.

Strength: is the resistance to breakage and deformation. matter that has high Strength but low Plastiscity is brittle.

Solidity: is in part density, it's how tight the molecular bonds of a material are. Through con controlling air could be turned into jelly(good luck trying to breath) and water could be made solid without freezing.

Medium: is how efficiently matter will conduct or resist types of energy.

Vesselage: is matter's capacity to absorb energy.

Profusion: is the efficiency at which matter will releases energy. materials with high profusion burn hotter than those with lower.

Incandescence: How flammable/combustible matter is,perhaps explosive as well.

I could use some clarification. First, why do you need to know the specific properties of matter to build your magic system? That is above and beyond what most people do.

Second, Can you provide some guiding questions? or do you just want help in general?

I can tell you it is probably a bad idea to put ductility/malleability in the same category as elasticity, as elasticity is very different.

I would also advise against grouping hardness and density together. Maybe you should group hardness with brittleness. under strength. Those tend to go together.

Also, your profusion and medium appear to be roughly the same thing.

I think capacity is a better name for vesselage, and flammability is a better name for incandescence.

I wanted the exact properties of matter to understand what I was doing and how matter was being manipulated;A know the rules before you brake them situation.

However upon finding a list of matter's properties I realized that the number of actual terms was unwieldy. I didn't need that many terms and I didn't want to that much realism in my magic system.

What I need was a handful of traits that could described the nature of a piece of matter.

So I began looking into condensing/simplifying the real properties in a much smaller number of "alchemical attributes". I haven't gotten very far on my own thus the thread.

But I manage to do a few things.

ductility/elasticity/malleability are all different properties but what they have in common are that they describe elements of matters ability to be reformed. Thus I grouped them all together as the attribute plasticity.

I decided to treat brittleness as a consequence of differing ratios of the attributes rather than an independent property. That choice was in part inspired by real science, gems and ceramic are Strong and Solid however they are not very Plastic so when subject to force they will shatter breaking instead of bending.

Medium and Profusion are meant to be very different attributes.

Medium is all about energy conductivity/resistance, a piece of matter will have different Medium ratings for different types of energy.

Profusion is the efficiency at which matter will convert into energy, a high profusion material burn hotter because than a low profusion one because more energy is being released per unit.

Solidity isn't exactly destiny, it deals with the tightness of an objects molecular bonds. By controlling this attribute water can be made solid without freezing it,earthen materials can be made liquid without melting them,air can be made gelatinousness.

Vessalage which you suggested that I call capacity is matters ability to absorb energy;I'll need another attribute to describe energy density.

Incandescent meaning to glow, I thought that it was a good a name for trait describing how readily something will,burn and exploded.

You are right, ductility and malleability are about the ability of an object to be reformed without breaking.

Elasticity is about the ability of an object to be bent without being reformed.

When you are talking about profusion, you are talking about releasing chemical energy from bonds. This is very different from converting matter into energy.

The majority of aggressive chemical reactions are redox reactions. This includes acidity and fire and rusting. The main property of all redox reactions is electronegativity. Nuclear explosions are not a redox reaction. But most other explosions are.

edited 2nd Jun '16 10:04:31 PM by war877

I didn't know the term "redox reactions" until you mentioned it.

On some thing I'm going to have to it's just magic or metaphysics. Both chemical explosions and atomic ones both deal with matter releasing energy and thus are symbolically/metaphysically related; the structure of matter might not even be the same as earth in my setting.

ductility/malleability will remain linked under the same attribute which i'm calling fluidity,flux or flow; this attribute will also cover how conductive matter is. Elasticity was initially linked with same attribute as ductility/malleability because they all relate to the plasticity of matter.

But elasticity could be a consequence of ratios of Strength/solidity and Fluidity with in matter,just as brittleness is.