Question It's a miracle (Tiny Tim walks again)

We know that it is canon that Tiny Tim (the iron giant) can not physically be made to walk. At least not more than a few steps without breaking something critical to walking (like the knee or hip joint, or the workshop because the giant robot fell over and crushed all that expensive equipment)

Even if I am not sure if that should be canon let us accept it as inviolable truth that TIny TIm can not walk ever.

How many ways can we come up for a senior legacy to prank the students and make him walk around the quad?

My first idea is to
build a human sized 'micro tim' and have a warper scale it up to full tiny tim size. From its own perspective (given how size changing has been described to work in the various canon stories) tiny tim is still just micro tim and equally capable of walking as most humans and human sized androids. From everybody else's perspective that is going to be tiny tim thundering around and creating a hefty repair bill for the pavement of the quad ...

Erianaiel wrote: How many ways can we come up for a senior legacy to prank the students and make him walk around the quad?

1. Generator + J-Team going full-on Jack Hawksmoor ("Ayla and the Mad Scientist", part 5)
2. Robert Rose: ectoplasm manifestor
3. Beltane: as with Robert, but the concept needs more pizazz to interest her.
4. WIZ-<any, but 3+ is known to work, and 9 such are known to be on-campus>: metal golem ("Christmas Elves")

Build a knock-off. Since it's mostly decorative, you can skimp a lot to trim down the mass and make it practical. For example, most of the upper body can be a paper machete, cardboard, and foam shell built around an inflatable core filled with hydrogen. The bottom half just needs a sturdy enough skeleton to support its own lightweight shell, some actuators, and a power source. You can also hide somebody like Hank inside it so they can use their flight to carry part of the load.

Or...you could just use a hologram...or any of these:

- Put some of the antigravity things from Spider's armour in the thing to keep it lighter. Then just rig up a exoskeleton to keep it upright or something.

- Do what I did (Shhh!!) and use a very powerful computer that ~TOTALLY~ didn't belong to the IT department and not the ~engineering~ department (we may fall under the same umbrella department of 'engineering and It', but they're still separately run, and there's been a prank war brewing for a while- I refused adamantly to change all the passwords and crash the expensive "super" (note quotations) computer they keep flaunting) and thus was off-limits without express permission from the Dean...sorry off track. What I did was simulate how the joint stress of a giant robot (in this case a Gundam) would hold up, and thus devised a engineering solution...that would require unobtanium. Of a sorts. Maybe a devisor can think up some new light-as-aluminium-yet-strong-as-titanium material...

- F**k all the formalities and just dress a size changer up in a convincing Tiny Tim costume.

CrazyMinh wrote: Or...you could just use a hologram...or any of these:

- Put some of the antigravity things from Spider's armour in the thing to keep it lighter. Then just rig up a exoskeleton to keep it upright or something.

- Do what I did (Shhh!!) and use a very powerful computer that ~TOTALLY~ didn't belong to the IT department and not the ~engineering~ department (we may fall under the same umbrella department of 'engineering and It', but they're still separately run, and there's been a prank war brewing for a while- I refused adamantly to change all the passwords and crash the expensive "super" (note quotations) computer they keep flaunting) and thus was off-limits without express permission from the Dean...sorry off track. What I did was simulate how the joint stress of a giant robot (in this case a Gundam) would hold up, and thus devised a engineering solution...that would require unobtanium. Of a sorts. Maybe a devisor can think up some new light-as-aluminium-yet-strong-as-titanium material...

- F**k all the formalities and just dress a size changer up in a convincing Tiny Tim costume.

What material strength did it need? There's always carbon nanotubes....

CrazyMinh wrote: What I did was simulate how the joint stress of a giant robot (in this case a Gundam) would hold up, and thus devised a engineering solution...that would require unobtanium. Of a sorts. Maybe a devisor can think up some new light-as-aluminium-yet-strong-as-titanium material.

Did you use solid materials only, or did you consider an engineered lattice of smaller structural members as a way to cut down on weight without compromising strength for parts of the joint that do not need to be air-, water-, or oil- tight? The same principle works for bridges and bones, why not with metals, ceramics, and reinforced resins?

...

Dude, I'm not a materials scientist. I just did stress calculations using a structural force calculation program that I found a while back and wanted to try using for some of my projects I want to work on, but don't have the materials as of yet for, and consulted my friend who IS a materials scientist on my design. He said for it to work, you'd need unobtanium. Don't shoot the messenger.

I HAVE done some stuff with materials science as part of my mechatronics course...but it was introductory at the worst and basic at the best. I do know about how certain materials behave under stress, but not stuff like carbon-based nanomaterials or other exotic and experimental stuff.

In answer to Null, yes I did use a engineered lattice. The problem is that when the machine 'walks', each step causes buckling depending on the materials you use. Titanium lasts the longest, with the 'Gundam' managing to take around 30 steps before the structure around the primary gearbox housing buckled and caused the leg to become inoperable. The program didn't allow for shock dampning, and I was already taking liberties with it. I hope the IT department (and possibly the people in whatever department usually use that tool) forgive my possibly overzelous modifications. It didn't start out able to simulate complex mechanics, and I'm not sure if any of the features I cut from the original code to allow for certain scripts to run were important or not.

In any case, I made a backup of the original software, so if someone comes looking for me with complaints, I'll be able to restore the original build. This wasn't recent BTW. This was before the fire. Thankfully, I keep all the backups of my files on hard disks in a rented locker at the uni. I'm glad I was at least prepared in that respect. Not so glad that I'm currently living in a apartment that smells like paint solvent and has almost no furnishings. Also not glad that my roommate ended up ditching the accomadation that we found for her due to...ahem...a really, really slobby roomate. Like, this guy...f**k!!! He seemed fine at first, but then my roomie called to tell me she'd found his entire closet full of trash. When he was confronted by her about it, he just said that he had to clean out some space for her. I.E. he'd been keeping rubbish in her room, since he was using the trash can as a compost bin for growing 'the largest maggot ever'. What the hell was that guy doing, trying to grow the largest maggot??? He showed his latest to her apparently. She screamed and left immediately. She's asked me to get her stuff, so I'm going to have to go meet Mr. Maggot. Great thing when you have a former roommate who is really, really bossy. Quite scary too. The roomie, not the Maggot guy. Although I'm probably going to be puking by the end of it after hearing what she said...

I wonder how large a fly that maggot with make???

null0trooper wrote:

Erianaiel wrote: How many ways can we come up for a senior legacy to prank the students and make him walk around the quad?

1. Generator + J-Team going full-on Jack Hawksmoor ("Ayla and the Mad Scientist", part 5)
2. Robert Rose: ectoplasm manifestor
3. Beltane: as with Robert, but the concept needs more pizazz to interest her.
4. WIZ-<any, but 3+ is known to work, and 9 such are known to be on-campus>: metal golem ("Christmas Elves")

Just ask Jimmy T to do it.

null0trooper wrote:

Erianaiel wrote: How many ways can we come up for a senior legacy to prank the students and make him walk around the quad?

1. Generator + J-Team going full-on Jack Hawksmoor ("Ayla and the Mad Scientist", part 5)
2. Robert Rose: ectoplasm manifestor
3. Beltane: as with Robert, but the concept needs more pizazz to interest her.
4. WIZ-<any, but 3+ is known to work, and 9 such are known to be on-campus>: metal golem ("Christmas Elves")

Are you sure that Jade and her team can actually do this? The J team is limited to a sphere of 6 feet in diameter and has a maximum lifting weight of 200 or so pounds? Wouldn't Tiny Tim be far bigger and heavier than Jade could control?

I have no idea if there is any canon description how much ectoplasm can be summoned and/or gathered. And if it can be turned into something indistinguishable from metal?

The metal golem is an interesting idea that had not crossed my mind. Not sure if a metal golem is not subject to the power and strength problems inherent in a giant robot, but then we are talking about magic so it really can do whatever we want, if it is interesting enough for a story

Erianaiel wrote:

null0trooper wrote:

Erianaiel wrote: How many ways can we come up for a senior legacy to prank the students and make him walk around the quad?

1. Generator + J-Team going full-on Jack Hawksmoor ("Ayla and the Mad Scientist", part 5)
2. Robert Rose: ectoplasm manifestor
3. Beltane: as with Robert, but the concept needs more pizazz to interest her.
4. WIZ-<any, but 3+ is known to work, and 9 such are known to be on-campus>: metal golem ("Christmas Elves")

Are you sure that Jade and her team can actually do this? The J team is limited to a sphere of 6 feet in diameter and has a maximum lifting weight of 200 or so pounds? Wouldn't Tiny Tim be far bigger and heavier than Jade could control?

You didn't ask for Tiny Tim itself to walk around, but for a prank to make it look like TT is walking around.

Nonetheless, it's not the whole J Team that is limited to six feet, only each individual, and the limitation doesn't require the entirety of an object be within 6 feet, only that the objects to be held intersects the individual's 6ft sphere of influence. It is also unknown whether Jade is permanently limited in the number of J Team members she can charge.

A well-made puppet worked from the elbows, knees, and head, weighing in at something under 1500 lbs total, is within Jade's capacity by the end of Fall 2006.

Erianaiel wrote: I have no idea if there is any canon description how much ectoplasm can be summoned and/or gathered. And if it can be turned into something indistinguishable from metal?

You didn't ask for something that could be taken back to a lab and analyzed. However, if Beltane hits you with a banana hallucinogen cream pie, your nervous system won't care that it's ectoplasm ("Ayla and the Birthday Brawl"). If Rob Rose wants a sleigh to carry passengers, he gets one:

There's an Angel in Dickinson Cottage wrote: As if in answer to the horn call, white smoke billowed up from the ground, revealing a large ornate art nouveau red sleigh with four rows of seats, lanterns hanging from the side, and four large caribou in harness. Thorn climbed into the driver’s seat, and looked at his handiwork. “Oh. Right. Not quite in season anymore, is it? Well…” He concentrated, and the smoke billowed over the caribou, revealing four large polar bears in the traces.

How much can be manifested? That depends on the rate at which it can be pulled in while the existing stock stays stable. There's a geodesic dome on campus, and every panel of "glass" that went into it was manifested by one person.

Erianaiel wrote: The metal golem is an interesting idea that had not crossed my mind. Not sure if a metal golem is not subject to the power and strength problems inherent in a giant robot, but then we are talking about magic so it really can do whatever we want, if it is interesting enough for a story

There is no limit to the amount of Essence that can be used in a spell, only to the skill, the Will, and the ingenuity of the caster to wield it. Read "Christmas Elves: Fey and Jade's Holiday Havoc".

Obviously an illusion could work, but it only takes one person who doesn't perceive it for that to be revealed.