Bad science. Diamonds are pure carbon. Apples are … mostly water and carbohydrates. I doubt she can get rid of all the hydrogen and hydroxide groups bonded to the carbon just by squeezing.
Unless, of course, we invoke the Rule of Cool. I’m okay with that.
She could “destroy the Earth and the resulting shockwave would collapse the sun”. Yeah, I think she’s strong enough to get rid of hydroxide groups from carbohydrates simply by the sheer pressure of her hands squeezing an apple.
Maybe she pressed the hydrogens into the oxygens and recombined the resulting atoms into carbon?
In a process similar to but modified from the lower left portion of this system? https://xkcd.com/2982/
The formation of a natural diamond requires very specific conditions, like exposure of carbon-bearing materials to high pressure, ranging approximately between 45 and 60 kilobars, but a comparatively low temperature range between approximately 1600-2370F (900-1300C). These conditions are known to be met in two places on Earth: the litospheric mantle below relatively stable continental plates, and at the site of a meteorite impact.
Professor Malcolm McMahon, based at the Centre for Science and Extreme Conditions at Edinburgh University, said that his team of scientists can replicate these extreme conditions, by squeezing organic material between the tips of two diamonds, thus producing a “stiletto heel effect”.
He sustains that huge pressure is all that it takes to transform ordinary elements into new materials, thus proving that the century-old dream of the alchemists is really possible.
Who knew that knocking 3 measly protons off of a lead atom would be so hazardous to one’s health?
As for making diamonds, well, we’ve been doing that for years now… In fact one of the methods uses a process not unlike that which happens during a meteor impact.
Synthetic diamonds are quite common nowadays. So much so that the IGA and other regulatory bodies in the diamond industry have taken to registering natural stones to provide proof of authenticity as well as developing spectroscopic scanning techniques to spot the synthetics.
And by now they have even managed to recreate the flaws in the diamonds that they were looking for with their spectroscopic equipment. As it stands it’s possible to grow synthetic diamonds that can not be distinguished from naturally occurring diamonds, something De Beers really doesn’t want to acknowledge as it threatens their business.
You’re all assuming Bud is being literal about the ultra-compressed object she made in her hands. She probably just means a “stone” created by extreme pressures no human should be able to duplicate, which she knows is similar to how diamonds are created. Thus, for wont of what else to call an ultra-dense former apple (and other similar things she made from likely different objects), she’ll call them “diamonds”.
You’re missing a very important part about Alchemy : it was officialy called a “philosophy” at a historic time when anything outside of Christianism meant a one-way ticket to the bonfire, specifically anything not based purely on Faith in the Scriptures, but Philosophies were allowed because they were supposed to explore the mysteries of said Scriptures.
But the real foundation of Alchemy is Experimentation, Observation, Repetition, and Progress.
In one word : SCIENCE !
The “metal” that the Alchemist works through the Oeuvre au Noir (stumbling in the dark), the Oeuvre au Rouge (getting into the meat of things) and finaly the Oeuvre au Blanc (reaching the light) is the Alchemist himself refining his knowledge, from formless grey lead to shapely gold, while the Philosopher’s Stone itself is just the complitation of research notes (engraved in stone, biblical reference et all).
It was a way for pursuers of knowledge during a time of religious negation of everything not written in the Scriptures (and the interpretation of said Scriptures by the local priesthood), to “occult” they real goals by hiding in plain sight as harmless fools, and it’s thanks to that that we still have knowledge of math, astronomy, botany, chemistry that were common knowledge during the Antiquity but deliberately erased (or at least, they tried) by religious dogma.
Don’t mock Alchemy in a paragraph referecing science, they are the same thing with a different name.
Look at Bud. Now back to Brandi. Now back at Bud. That apple in her hand is now a diamond! Anything is possible when you’re a golem! I’m on a dead horse.
Super carbon press. Hardcore.
And yet, as she said, she still has noodle arms…
🙁
Memories ! Baron of Munchausen I love you !
Best. Movie. Ever!
Bad science. Diamonds are pure carbon. Apples are … mostly water and carbohydrates. I doubt she can get rid of all the hydrogen and hydroxide groups bonded to the carbon just by squeezing.
Unless, of course, we invoke the Rule of Cool. I’m okay with that.
Never underestimate the power of extreme pressure.
its diamonds I think we can invoke the rule of cool.
She could “destroy the Earth and the resulting shockwave would collapse the sun”. Yeah, I think she’s strong enough to get rid of hydroxide groups from carbohydrates simply by the sheer pressure of her hands squeezing an apple.
Maybe she pressed the hydrogens into the oxygens and recombined the resulting atoms into carbon?
In a process similar to but modified from the lower left portion of this system? https://xkcd.com/2982/
It’s potentially possible if we assume infinite applied pressure… but we’d be talking about a diamond the size of a grain of sand.
The formation of a natural diamond requires very specific conditions, like exposure of carbon-bearing materials to high pressure, ranging approximately between 45 and 60 kilobars, but a comparatively low temperature range between approximately 1600-2370F (900-1300C). These conditions are known to be met in two places on Earth: the litospheric mantle below relatively stable continental plates, and at the site of a meteorite impact.
Professor Malcolm McMahon, based at the Centre for Science and Extreme Conditions at Edinburgh University, said that his team of scientists can replicate these extreme conditions, by squeezing organic material between the tips of two diamonds, thus producing a “stiletto heel effect”.
He sustains that huge pressure is all that it takes to transform ordinary elements into new materials, thus proving that the century-old dream of the alchemists is really possible.
Somehow I doubt that they can turn lead into gold.
Except that they did. Just cost so much more than the Gold that while achieving the Alchemist goal they never fulfilled the Alchemist’s dream
that and it’s radioactive, so a wedding band might end up rotting your sweetheart’s finger away
Who knew that knocking 3 measly protons off of a lead atom would be so hazardous to one’s health?
As for making diamonds, well, we’ve been doing that for years now… In fact one of the methods uses a process not unlike that which happens during a meteor impact.
Synthetic diamonds are quite common nowadays. So much so that the IGA and other regulatory bodies in the diamond industry have taken to registering natural stones to provide proof of authenticity as well as developing spectroscopic scanning techniques to spot the synthetics.
And by now they have even managed to recreate the flaws in the diamonds that they were looking for with their spectroscopic equipment. As it stands it’s possible to grow synthetic diamonds that can not be distinguished from naturally occurring diamonds, something De Beers really doesn’t want to acknowledge as it threatens their business.
You’re all assuming Bud is being literal about the ultra-compressed object she made in her hands. She probably just means a “stone” created by extreme pressures no human should be able to duplicate, which she knows is similar to how diamonds are created. Thus, for wont of what else to call an ultra-dense former apple (and other similar things she made from likely different objects), she’ll call them “diamonds”.
13 years too late, I know …
You’re missing a very important part about Alchemy : it was officialy called a “philosophy” at a historic time when anything outside of Christianism meant a one-way ticket to the bonfire, specifically anything not based purely on Faith in the Scriptures, but Philosophies were allowed because they were supposed to explore the mysteries of said Scriptures.
But the real foundation of Alchemy is Experimentation, Observation, Repetition, and Progress.
In one word : SCIENCE !
The “metal” that the Alchemist works through the Oeuvre au Noir (stumbling in the dark), the Oeuvre au Rouge (getting into the meat of things) and finaly the Oeuvre au Blanc (reaching the light) is the Alchemist himself refining his knowledge, from formless grey lead to shapely gold, while the Philosopher’s Stone itself is just the complitation of research notes (engraved in stone, biblical reference et all).
It was a way for pursuers of knowledge during a time of religious negation of everything not written in the Scriptures (and the interpretation of said Scriptures by the local priesthood), to “occult” they real goals by hiding in plain sight as harmless fools, and it’s thanks to that that we still have knowledge of math, astronomy, botany, chemistry that were common knowledge during the Antiquity but deliberately erased (or at least, they tried) by religious dogma.
Don’t mock Alchemy in a paragraph referecing science, they are the same thing with a different name.
Look at Bud. Now back to Brandi. Now back at Bud. That apple in her hand is now a diamond! Anything is possible when you’re a golem! I’m on a dead horse.
That last sentence made my day.