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This is based off of Benefits of Quicken Enchantment on Humans and covers an unusual aspect of the Quicken enchantment.

The average running speed for humans is about 14 miles per hour (+/- 23km/h), with Usain Bolt representing the maximum running speed at 27 miles per hour (+/- 43km/h). Runners gain that same speed increase, alongside the endurance of an Olympic-level marathon runner, which is gained not just for running speed, but for movement in general.

In other words, if we subtract 27 mph from 14 mph, we get a difference of 13 mph (+/- 22km/h)....I'm not a mathematician, so I have no idea how to determine that difference, but if we were to apply that increase uniformly to a person's overall movement speed (to the speed of all body parts) and reaction time, what would be the benefits?

In other words, my question is How Beneficial Would Quickened Movement Be?

Clarification:

  1. Basically, this question is looking for how much faster Usain Bolt is compared to the average person, as a ratio, and how beneficial it would be for a person to have their overall movement speed and reaction time increased by that same ratio.

This is because Runners don't just run faster, they do everything faster; they think faster, they jump faster, and they just plain work faster. This affects every part of their body, so they breath, recover (and heal), even blink and pump blood faster. And, most importantly, they expend as much energy as a regular person would at any given time despite their increased speed, due to their increased speed being fueled by magic.

  1. Runners (also Boltrunners and Runnark, which are mentioned below) are reinforced so they can handle the accidents of life (tripping, falling, colliding into things) at their higher speeds. However, just like for regular people, if they hit something hard or sharp enough, they will die, so no running into boulders! Runners are people, not cars!

Specifications for Best Answer:

  1. The best answer must go above and beyond the call of duty, accounting not only for the benefits of increased speed for a Runner, but a Runnark (the monster people get Quicken from) and Boltrunner as well. A Boltrunner is ten times faster than a Runner, while Runnark have a top speed of 70 mph (same as a cheetah) and are basically Komodo Dragons adapted for a faster, more active lifestyle.

This means that for a Boltrunner, you can just take a Runner's speed increase and turn it up by 10, while for a Runnark you can just make a new ratio based off 70:12 mph (12 mph is the maximum speed of a regular Komodo dragon) and increase a Runnark's speed off that, then explain how beneficial that increased speed would be.

To clarify, yes, Boltrunners consume the same amount of energy as a Runner.

Alendyias
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  • Thanks for the edit, it really helps! – Alendyias May 17 '21 at 16:57
  • Does a bolt runner use the same amount of energy as a runner? – Ekadh Singh - Reinstate Monica May 17 '21 at 17:35
  • @EkadhSingh: good question, the answer is yes. – Alendyias May 17 '21 at 17:38
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    I think you are misunderstanding these numbers: "14 miles per hour (+/- 23km/h)". I don't know where you got them, but you should not interpret that as "14 mph plus or minus 23 kph". Nobody would mix units like that. 14 mph is approximately 23 kph. So, you can express average running speed in miles, or kilometers, per hour. Don't subtract the one from the other. (And if you do, you get 0.) – Tom May 18 '21 at 05:56
  • Does it effect blood? – Writer-of-stories Jun 05 '21 at 12:52
  • @Writer-of-stories: not exactly, it affects the circulatory system, as stated in How Would Greater Movement Speed Benefit Humans? – Alendyias Jun 05 '21 at 21:12
  • @Alendyias Oh, Btw, suggestion that might help you come up with ideas for feats, watch Kamen rider kabuto, or fight scenes from it. Also, simply dragging someone by their shirt, and then letting go...oof – Writer-of-stories Jun 06 '21 at 16:18

2 Answers2

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It's more hours in a day

Walking speed is something like 2-3 mph, so the "ratio" is between 4-7x.

But you say it's not just movement, it's everything, including their cognition.

So, if they do everything 4x faster, then in a single workday they can accomplish 4x the work. If one of these people has to pull an all-nighter, she's actually pulling four all-nighters, which is to say: she's going to rest for 2 hours (which is a full night's sleep for her), and then she'll spend 6x4=24 hours on her project, and be done in the morning with plenty of time to spare.

Similar math would apply to any span of time.

So, if she lives for 80 years, doing everything at 4x speed, she's lived and experienced 320 years of life. But she would still measure it as 80, because she would still count laps around the sun like us. It's just that for her, the day/night cycle lasts the equivalent of 24x4=96 hours.

So, what's the benefit? I dunno: what would you do with more hours in a day?

Tom
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Ratios

Usain bolt has a maximum speed of 45 kph, most humans have about 13 kph running speed. This means you speed up about 3.5 times. Gaining 32 kph once per enchantment makes the people who have 10 go up to 333 kph, or a little faster than the top speed of a Porsche 959. The ratio for these people is 25.6 times faster.

No, Runners are cars.

Since everything about the runners are faster, including healing and recovery, this effects their G tolerance and ability to stop suddenly. Lets say your are running at 333 kph or about 92.5 meters per second (round to 100 meters per second). You hit a wall experiencing a 100G stop. It takes about 10 milliseconds to stop, in which time you travel 5 centimeters. That sounds lethal right? Wrong. You experienced 1000 meters per second per second acceleration, but since for you time is dilated 25.6 times, that is actually closer to 40 meters per second per second, or about 4 Gs. 4 Gs is about as bad as a rollercoaster, which makes sense since from your frame of reference you are jogging at a normal human speed.

Usefulness of the enchantment

While this does a lot for people it has one clear lack of drawback. The people take the same amount of energy as normal people. This means for people with the 25 times multiplier they would go a week without food without problem. They would cover incredible distance and only need the same amount of food or water as a normal person would need in the same amount of time.

This is a force multiplier obviously, but it will help some people more than others. Most portrait artists require 10 hours with the subject to get the painting right. A painter who cuts this down to half an hour is going to get more people to commission. If your job is based on writing or thinking then this increases your output by 25 without increasing your costs. You will have faster turn around times, and office work that goes through multiple people can instead be handled by one person. You don't have to pay 20 people to handle taxes for a town, you just have one person, and since that one person handles all the paper work they remember everything that a group of 20 people would do, letting them make connections that groups wouldn't. For example, if tax fraud is occurring, but would only be noticeable if you see two people's tax forms if 20 people do the forms then there is a high chance they won't be cross referenced, but with the runner there is a 100% chance they will be cross referenced.

The dollar benefit of this enchantment is roughly 20 times the salary of what ever working person you employ. therefore, ministers, bureaucrats, and managers will want this since their economic effect is the highest. Note that potentially kings and dukes might not benefit from this if their only job is to hold the land, but if they actually do work it would help them.