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In the post What would powers based on the four fundamental forces look like? @rschpdr gave permission to ask the question that is stated, but looking at each force one at a time.

And so, this is the first of a series of posts dedicated to this question.

P.S. The world I'm making has a magic system put that is irrelevant here, I just want to know what powers are possible with the fundamental forces.

Edit: when I say ‘powers based of gravity’, what I’m trying to say is the that the magic can manipulate the curvature of space-time. This manipulation is all controlling in this setting, but is limited by the training of the individual, but digress.

To keep things straight forward, here are some 'spells' to base the answer off of:

Accelerate an object by manipulating space-time.

Creating singularities.

Somehow crossing a significant distance near instantly.

Mass manipulation.

I know that gravity manipulation can allow for more abilities, but this is just a few examples to get started.

Seraphim
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  • You should copy most of the baseline requirements from the previous question to this one as well – IT Alex Nov 21 '19 at 21:19
  • As soon as I am able. – Seraphim Nov 21 '19 at 21:22
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    Gravity, gravity only of the "four fundamental forces". Yep, just gravity. How about dark-energy? Does gravity include anti-gravity, can your super-protagonist stop the universe from expanding out-of-hand? Excessive perhaps. Can you constrain your question a bit? Maybe specify an area of effect for the power? – Escaped dental patient. Nov 21 '19 at 22:26
  • Pain / Nagato in Naruto shippuden used gravity as an attractive or repulsive force on enemies or anything they wished, also there was an over the top move where he produces a small black hole and everything in the surrounding area is sucked up forming a large spherical mass with the enemy crushed within it. –  Nov 22 '19 at 00:12
  • Although not a duplicate, my question from some time ago might help you improving yours: https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/141533/gravity-magic-how-does-it-work – Tobias F. Nov 22 '19 at 07:02

2 Answers2

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Gravity is the weak force that drags all objects with the property of mass towards each other with this simple calculation: M1 (the mass of the first object) x M2 (the mass of the second object) x G (the gravitational constant) / d^2 (the distance between the two objects, squared). Short version: (M1*M2*G)/d^2.

'Power based on gravity' is a vague term, so let's apply it to the only thing that contains 'gravity' in this equation - the gravitational constant, or G. G = 6.67 * 10^-11, or 0.0000000000667. As you can see, this is a very small number, which is good. If it were larger, than the sun would go nova and kill us all. If it were smaller, it's not likely the sun would form. (See the Fine-Tuning Problem for more details.) Let's say that your character possess the ability to adjust the gravitational constant between any two objects, but only increases it insofar as that relationship between objects. What power or set of powers would result? Two, one for adjusting the constant in either direction.

That person would be given the ability to accelerate any two objects of mass at each other, with equal force on each of them. For instance, applying it on a relationship between a steel block and a ball bearing would result in the ball bearing being moved - after all, the ball bearing has much less mass. In addition, you would be able to reduce the amount of force caused by gravity as well, thus lessening the Earth's pull on objects.

It's important to note that you cannot affect kinetic force already in existence (save for applying new force in an opposite direction and letting Newton's Laws take over) and overusage would almost certainly result in a catastrophe of near apocalyptic proportions. Aside from that, the limit is just however creative you can be with that power set.

Halfthawed
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  • Taking your example of a steel block and a ball bearing... I think there's a mistake (I'm not sure, though). Gravity is the force of a object applied to other objects. So if you increase the G constant in the ball bearing, it would attract the steel block, right? Since the attractive force (gravity) of the ball bearing would increase. – IloneSP Nov 21 '19 at 22:45
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    No, the force is applied to both equally. Fun fact: You exert just as much force on the Earth as the Earth does to you. The Earth is just too big to notice. – Halfthawed Nov 22 '19 at 00:18
  • Right. Netwon's third law. Hadn't thought on that yesterday. – IloneSP Nov 22 '19 at 07:44
  • Except gravity is not an attractive force, gravity is the deformation spacetime experiences by mass. Motion is along world lines. If these can be made asymmetrically, without mass, you make a spacetime gradient so the ball bearing falls toward the block. Oho! Make it steep, and you'll heat the block with the impact, make it circular and the bearing will fall along that path, without acceleration! The bearing is in free fall during all of this. Look up and drop the bearing into the sun, high gradient pointed at the sun, it's gone. Leap into the same hole! Punch the face of God! – chiggsy Mar 28 '21 at 06:26
  • Ok, not that. EM radiation travels through spacetime, but that's what you use to see, so you could instantly zip to the Sun, but to live through it, you'd need to wrap spacetime around you, you'd be blind. Still you have with this power reactionless motion. Also, you are a perpetual motion machine of the first order. Drop a tennis ball and then create a gradient right above it, and it'll bounce as long as you want, because you can generate gravitational potential at will, via geometries of spacetime. Perpetual motion! – chiggsy Mar 28 '21 at 06:38
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Your spacetime-bending superhero could conjure small singularities by dramatically condensing matter. You could then wave your hands even faster and use those holes in spacetime to slow the flow of local time, or just use them as weapons. Summon a black hole like Goku did the spirit bomb. Do it.

HolocronCollector
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  • Bonus: use it to make a black hole from small amounts of matter, then turn off the effect. Assuming that Hawking Radiation is correct, it immediately explodes, basically allowing you to convert all of that mass into energy. Unless your target is defended against radiation (if they, say, are the one with power over electromagnetism), this would probably be easier than trying to hit it with the singularity directly. – CAE Jones Nov 22 '19 at 12:09
  • This can be used defensively, if, say, the Gravity manipulator goes up against the other forces. EM guy can shred atoms. Strong guy can shred protons. Weak guy... can increase the Cosmic Rays that make it to the ground. But if Gravity guy is protected by an event horizon, Chaotic Evil EM / Strong guys don't immediately win. – CAE Jones Nov 22 '19 at 12:11
  • How can the gravity user be defended by a event horizon. Wouldn’t they be torn apart? – Seraphim Nov 22 '19 at 18:58
  • Event Horizon around them, but they bend space around themselves, like a bubble. This allows them to survive the tidal forces as well as avoid the relativistic time effects. – chiggsy Mar 28 '21 at 06:09