No Conservation of Energy: Difference between revisions

In [[Speculative Fiction]], the Law of Conservation of Energy is disregarded more often than it is honored. Whether it's magic or psychic powers, people can perform superhuman feats while the question of where the energy comes from to do them is never answered. Things can be set on fire, lifted with the power of the mind, crushed, or altered without an apparent energy source.

 

 

This can also work in reverse with energy apparently being destroyed. Actions that should create a huge amount of energy, particularly energy in the form of heat, don't.

[[Tropes Are Not Bad|Of course, it could be argued that any use of energy which is unequivocally already supernatural to begin with,]] [[Justified Trope|just by definition doesn't necessarily have to follow physical laws anyway.]]

 

 

[[Perpetual Motion Machine]] is a subtrope of this. See also [[Shapeshifter Baggage]], [[Elemental Baggage]], [[Art Major Physics]]. This trope is often implied among certain [[Required Secondary Powers]].

* Touma's of ''[[To Aru Majutsu no Index]]'' fist doesn't just [[Anti-Magic|nullify magic and esper powers]]. No, it also nullifies inertia. That's why he can effortlessly block the punch from a golem made of solid rock that stands a good thirty feet tall. Then again, given that something thirty feet tall and made of solid rock shouldn't be able to move under its own power in the first place, it could be argued that he's actually ''[[Inverted Trope|enforcing]]'' the laws of physics by getting rid of kinetic energy that should never have existed in the first place.

* ''[[Code Geass]]'' has their own version of a nuke known as freia (or "freya" depending on the translation). Instead of releasing a fast amount of energy, the freia creates an [[Sphere of Destruction|expanding energy field]] , which after a few seconds implodes and leaves only a void. It has never been explained what happened to all the matter that suddenly disappeared into thin air.

** He can throw blasts of flame so powerful they not only singe ''rock'', they cause superheated air to rush outwards with enough force to ''punch down walls'' of said rock in an instant. One sweep of [[Winged Humanoid|his wings]] created a pillar of flame powerful enough to destroy the entire top half of a hollowed-out mountain. Try to collapse a cave using a flamethrower, we'll wait.

** He can [[Healing Factor|regenerate any injury]], [[Good Thing You Can Heal|no matter how serious]], due to being a phoenix that creates its own flame. Where the mass comes from, or how he creates that regenerating flame in the first place, is a mystery.

** Played straight with broomsticks, however. They fly as high as you like, but they never seem to need fuel, except maybe [[A Wizard Did It|the wizard's magic]]?

*** Since the wizarding community doesn't believe anybody can reach the moon (not only did they not do it first, they think space travel is impossible), and they've got spells to handle the environmental problems, there probably ''is'' a limiting factor. Or some ambient planetary field all magic is powered off of.

* Averted in [[Anne McCaffrey]]'s [[Tower and The Hive|Talent series]], which explains that the power necessary for the telekinetics to hurl spaceships around like toys comes from ''massive'' generators. Psychic activity (with or without a generator gestalt) also burns ''a lot'' of calories, meaning that, while a telekinetic with no generator handy can get the job done quicker, he's still doing the same amount of work as someone doing it by hand. Many of the telekinetics are shown eating some pretty high-calorie meals and snacks throughout the day to keep their strength up, and get extremely fatigued after teleporting very large objects (even with the generators helping).

** Also, it's stated that energy must be '''absorbed''' when negative work is done (for instance, teleporting an object from orbit down to ground level), although simply being the conduit for such large amounts of energy can still place enormous stress on physical systems.

 

== Web Comics ==

* ''[[El Goonish Shive]]'' initially averted this with Grace, your average teenage everyday shapeshifter, who initially had a constant mass (and presumably variable density), no matter what form ([[Fridge Logic|even squirrel?]]). Then, once the TF gun is used on her, she's surprised to discover that her mass now does change with her form. This is apparently possible because both the TF gun and her shapeshifting powers use a type of energy that can be classified as magic. In addition, the magic users burn up Ki energy, which they constantly recharge, and can burn caloric energy instead, or use the Ki energy as a boost for things that normally use caloric energy. Still a little odd, especially considering where the Ki energy comes from, how immortals fit in, etc., but [[Magic A Is Magic A|explained well enough for this trope to be largely averted]]-- especially for comics, who get a free pass for some things like this.

* How can anybody ignore [[Order of the Stick]], the comic the quote above comes from? Definitely ignorable, as magic is a big part of the comic, but it is still [[Lampshaded]], as are other laws of physics.