Monsters resisting electricity

Archived from groups: rec.games.roguelike.nethack (More info?)

I wonder why especially glass monsters don't resist electricity in NH.
From my current game...

"The earth elemental is jolted with electricity!"
"The glass golem is jolted with electricity!"

There are some more which I would expect to be resistant.

Janis

Archived from groups: rec.games.roguelike.nethack (More info?)

Ohle Claussen wrote:
> On 2005-09-04, Janis Papanagnou wrote:
>
>>I wonder why especially glass monsters don't resist electricity in NH.
>> From my current game...
>>
>>"The earth elemental is jolted with electricity!"
>>"The glass golem is jolted with electricity!"
>>
>>There are some more which I would expect to be resistant.
>
> Huge currents do a far better job at damaging insulators than
> conductors. Have you ever seen the effects of lightning that struck into
> sand?

I have seen how high voltages pass between two poles where a glass is
in between. (Hope that sentence is clear.) Here a picture what I mean:

#
#
---> # <---
#
#

# is the glass, between ---> and <--- is high voltage.

The electric charge passes the air and creeps around the borders of the
glass and the glass remains intact. That was hundreds of thousand Volts
in the experiment.

> Hmm, seen from that perspective, the message combination you give
> above is much more interesting :-)

Could you please explain what you have in mind.

Janis

Archived from groups: rec.games.roguelike.nethack (More info?)

On 2005-09-05, Janis Papanagnou wrote:
> Ohle Claussen wrote:
>> On 2005-09-04, Janis Papanagnou wrote:
>>
>>>I wonder why especially glass monsters don't resist electricity in NH.
>>> From my current game...
>>>
>>>"The earth elemental is jolted with electricity!"
>>>"The glass golem is jolted with electricity!"
>>>
>>>There are some more which I would expect to be resistant.
>>
>> Huge currents do a far better job at damaging insulators than
>> conductors. Have you ever seen the effects of lightning that struck into
>> sand?
>
> I have seen how high voltages pass between two poles where a glass is
> in between. (Hope that sentence is clear.) Here a picture what I mean:
>
> #
> #
> ---> # <---
> #
> #
>
> # is the glass, between ---> and <--- is high voltage.
>
> The electric charge passes the air and creeps around the borders of the
> glass and the glass remains intact. That was hundreds of thousand Volts
> in the experiment.

That's because the glass has a higher resistivity, so it doesn't get
hit. When nethack says that an object is "jolted with electricity", this
implies that the current actually passes through the object, because it
is the path of lowest resistivity in the given setup. When a current
actually passes through the insulator, most of the energy is absorbed
and converted into heat that damages the material. A conducter leaves
the current almost intact, not absorbing much of the energy. That's why
it is a conductor.
>
>> Hmm, seen from that perspective, the message combination you give
>> above is much more interesting :-)
>
> Could you please explain what you have in mind.
>
When you go to a place where lightning has struck into sand, you will
find little chunks of glass. I was just generalizing to "Lightning turns
earth objects into glass objects" (or creatures).

Ohle

--
Jann Ohle Claussen | GPG-Key-ID E7149169
http://www.stud.uni-goettingen.de/~s251251
die_if_kernel("Whee... Hello Mr. Penguin", current->tss.kregs);
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Archived from groups: rec.games.roguelike.nethack (More info?)

Ohle Claussen wrote:
> On 2005-09-05, Janis Papanagnou wrote:
>>Ohle Claussen wrote:
>>>On 2005-09-04, Janis Papanagnou wrote:
>>>
>>>>I wonder why especially glass monsters don't resist electricity in NH.
>>>>From my current game...
>>>>
>>>>"The earth elemental is jolted with electricity!"
>>>>"The glass golem is jolted with electricity!"
>>>>
>>>>There are some more which I would expect to be resistant.
>>>
>>>Huge currents do a far better job at damaging insulators than
>>>conductors. Have you ever seen the effects of lightning that struck into
>>>sand?
>>
>>I have seen how high voltages pass between two poles where a glass is
>>in between. (Hope that sentence is clear.) Here a picture what I mean:
>>
>> #
>> #
>> ---> # <---
>> #
>> #
>>
>># is the glass, between ---> and <--- is high voltage.
>>
>>The electric charge passes the air and creeps around the borders of the
>>glass and the glass remains intact. That was hundreds of thousand Volts
>>in the experiment.
>
> That's because the glass has a higher resistivity, so it doesn't get
> hit. When nethack says that an object is "jolted with electricity", this
> implies that the current actually passes through the object, because it
> is the path of lowest resistivity in the given setup.

Yes, but wouldn't that be an inappropriate message then, since the air
seems to be more easily ionized (and thus more conductive) so that the
charge would bypass the glass. (Given the shape of a golem, of course,
and not some area too huge to be bypassed by the charge.)

> When a current
> actually passes through the insulator, most of the energy is absorbed
> and converted into heat that damages the material.

*If* it passes through... :-)

Given your picture downthread...

>To make this more clear, when an object is "jolted with electricity",
>the actual experiment you would have to compare this to would look like
>this:
> #
> --->#<---
> #

....why would that make any difference since the distance the current has
to pass the air is still smaller? I think the condition must be that the
area of the glass plate must be very broad (or the glass very thin?) to
be destroyed. What do you think?

> A conducter leaves
> the current almost intact, not absorbing much of the energy. That's why
> it is a conductor.

I know, though it depends...

In another related experiment I have seen a wire cable "atomized" when
a very high current have been passed through it. Of course because there
is at least *some* resistance left, as you indicated with "not much of".

Both experiments can be seen daily at the Deutsches Museum in Munich. 8-)

Janis

Archived from groups: rec.games.roguelike.nethack (More info?)

In article <dfm8mh$ep2$1@gwdu112.gwdg.de>, Ohle Claussen
<claussen@dpi.physik.uni-goettingen.de> says...
> > >To make this more clear, when an object is "jolted with electricity",
> > >the actual experiment you would have to compare this to would look like
> > >this:
> > > #
> > > --->#<---
> > > #
> >
> > ...why would that make any difference since the distance the current has
> > to pass the air is still smaller? I think the condition must be that the
> > area of the glass plate must be very broad (or the glass very thin?) to
> > be destroyed. What do you think?
> >
> OK, I see that I'm about to get unrealistic. Picture the electrodes
> above as slightly burried into the glass plate, and the wires equipped
> with some insulating.
>
>
Perhaps Mjollnir has an armour piercing tip, and only the point of that tip
is conductive?

Do Norse gods do a lot of electical engineering?

Archived from groups: rec.games.roguelike.nethack (More info?)

Doug Freyburger <dfreybur@yahoo.com> kirjoitti 07.09.2005:
> Andrew Kerr wrote:
>>
>> Perhaps Mjollnir has an armour piercing tip, and only the point of that tip
>> is conductive?
>>
>> Do Norse gods do a lot of electical engineering?
>
> Note the tense. "Did" they? No. "Do" they? Apparently yes.

Thor, God of Thunder, Lightning and Electrical Engineering. Yes, I
quite like the idea... ;-)

--
Ilmari Karonen
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