Special Powers...

[LHammonds]

...is not significant enough to have any direct impact...would it benefit anyone to make their existence known?

Nope. You're better off staying in that closet Vagrant0. Shhh...I hear somebody coming...speak nothing of this again. :ninja:

[dezdimona]

I have a special power and yes I use it but I don't talk about it either and I'm very serious!

[Vagrant0]

...is not significant enough to have any direct impact...would it benefit anyone to make their existence known?

Nope. You're better off staying in that closet Vagrant0. Shhh...I hear somebody coming...speak nothing of this again. :ninja:

Not nice to heckle... Wasn't even describing something that I could do, or even believe I could do. The example was purely hypothetical, and mostly a continuation of a conversation I had with some people earlier that day when the subject of super powers came up. Some of it also came up from some of the twitter postings I had read about The Amazing Meeting

 

The main thought was something like "If something like that existed, would it help anyone to make it known? Could it be that due to it not helping anyone that we subconsciously limit something like this from being possible since it would only serve to draw unwanted attention to ourselves or destroy the world around us? Or maybe, we're all better off just not having that ability in the first place." Almost all the responses would seem to validate this feeling. If I could do those things, I would be best off just keeping it to myself, and sitting on my ass instead of trying to use it to benefit others, even if it cost me everything in the process. Kinda disappointing really, since it means that rather than being open to new possibilities, people prefer to just be kept locked inside their own safe little worlds.

[LHammonds]

Not nice to heckle

It was my honest answer with a splash of humor. Given those two sentences I picked out, I would keep it to myself. Reason? I prefer to live my life rather than being bottled up. As history has shown, for every 1 person that has stood up for rights of people like themselves and ended up being persecuted / shunned / killed, there are 10,000 people just like them that chose to say nothing. It is due to those few people that step up to the plate that initiate change later down the road. But then again, most examples I would pull from history are about IMPORTANT things that those people would gladly trade their lives for....not merely the possibility to move a single hair on your arm with just your own thoughts (yes, I have that power...or is it just the beans I ate?).

[Retribution]

There's no such thing as being able to rip a quarter in half. What a silly thing to believe. For instance, my dad can barely bend a penny with his bare hands, but used to be able to bench press over 400 pounds. It's impossible. All television shows showcasing "supernatural" abilities are fake, they're designed to bring in money.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Biggest_D...in_the_Universe

[Vagrant0]

There's no such thing as being able to rip a quarter in half. What a silly thing to believe. For instance, my dad can barely bend a penny with his bare hands, but used to be able to bench press over 400 pounds. It's impossible. All television shows showcasing "supernatural" abilities are fake, they're designed to bring in money.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Biggest_D...in_the_Universe

Actually... Not quite. The same reason why your dad could bend a penny is the same reason why people can bend spoons, re-bar, and other metal objects. It is also less about brute strength (technically, what you can bench press has absolutely no bearing as to how strong your hands are). The secret lies in the physics of bending metal. As metal is stressed, it begins to heat up, as it begins to heat up, it becomes easier to bend. Pennies, as you may not know, are made mostly of zinc, with a copper shell, while quarters are made mostly of copper, with a zinc shell. Copper is naturally mailable, and zinc can become mailable at temperatures as low as 100 degrees c (about the point where water boils). Copper is also a good conductor of heat. What this really means is that the metals that make up the coins themselves are actually fairly easy to bend under the right circumstances.

 

Those circumstances are really more about long term stress as opposed to a single quick action. The longer the stress is present, the quicker the heat will build up and soften the metal. The more focused pressure you can exert, the more focused that heat will be at a place where you might be able to bend it. The reason why most probably don't manage to bend it deals mostly due to how this focus point keeps changing and the person's inability to keep the stress focused on that spot long enough. Most people give up when their fingers start hurting. With a penny, you are dealing with a smaller mass, which, although mostly zinc, is easier to apply enough friction and pressure to bend once you know how. With a quarter, you are dealing with a larger mass, but is mostly copper, so it is a bit harder since that copper wants to distribute that heat throughout itself. This is why the quarter is harder to bend (since the focus is being distributed along a line), but can be torn (since instead of applying pressure along a whole line, you are concentrating it at a single point (like tearing a phone book in half)).

 

In the example provided, the person had nothing to gain by faking this. This is not to say that more typical, David Blaine, kinda stuff, like biting a nickel, isn't entirely fake, and that there aren't hundreds of people trying to get rich by pulling similar stuff and using it as an example of "psychic powers". But instead that there is usually a good deal of physics behind these kinds of feats, or some sort of gimmick that allows for them to be done.

 

Regardless, those fakes are not what this thread is about. This thread is not about how people have been claiming to have various "powers" since before recorded history to make themselves famous, wealthy, or powerful. Instead, this thread is more about a hypothetical situation where someone actually has something similar to those "powers", and although they are essentially meaningless on their own, and cannot, by design, be used toward any end, selfish or otherwise, if it would help anyone making it known that there really powers that go beyond what is recognized by known science.

 

And to add a bit more to that discussion...

http://www.wimp.com/meditationpower/

Probably staged, probably faked, but still worth a thought or two. As you may have guessed, I kinda borrowed some of the ideas in the original post from this as well.

[Retribution]

Well, first off, don't take such a condescending attitude towards people. Maybe that wasn't your aim, but it felt like it to me. I do realize that metals, especially the ones used in pennies, can become much more malleable with increased stress, but it's not like that when my dad does it. He simply takes one, and bends it. While you are somewhat right in saying that how much you can bench press has nothing to do with how strong your hands are, generally, if you are very strong with one group of muscles, chances are, you'll be fairly strong in others as well. It doesn't matter what kind of argument you propose, quarters can not be torn, ripped in half, or broken, at least not by a human being(with their bare hands at least). I realize I'm getting off topic, and that this isn't a discussion of physics, but one of special(fake) powers. Just trying to elaborate on some things.

 

Sorry for the wall of text, but I don't feel the need to space it properly.

[Vagrant0]

Well, first off, don't take such a condescending attitude towards people. Maybe that wasn't your aim, but it felt like it to me. I do realize that metals, especially the ones used in pennies, can become much more malleable with increased stress, but it's not like that when my dad does it. He simply takes one, and bends it. While you are somewhat right in saying that how much you can bench press has nothing to do with how strong your hands are, generally, if you are very strong with one group of muscles, chances are, you'll be fairly strong in others as well. It doesn't matter what kind of argument you propose, quarters can not be torn, ripped in half, or broken, at least not by a human being(with their bare hands at least). I realize I'm getting off topic, and that this isn't a discussion of physics, but one of special(fake) powers. Just trying to elaborate on some things.

 

Sorry for the wall of text, but I don't feel the need to space it properly.

Meh, I think it's plausible, person who did it had nothing to gain from doing it, wasn't shown on TV, wasn't a stage performance, the physics are there, explained how it could be, can believe what you want. Without proof of it happening, there really is no reason to discuss further. If you wish to keep arguing, you might as well try posting the question over at Mythbusters... From the standpoint of being able to bend, or tear U.S. coins with your bare hands without aid of any tools or gimmicks. It might not make for good TV, but then again, it would be a hit against people like David Blaine, so might end up making a show.

 

There was no condescending attitude, I just felt it necessary to explain in detail the physics behind something like that. But yes, way off topic.

[Retribution]

Actually, if you look at exanimis's post carefully, it was on T.V.

[Trenloe]

*Glares* i cant say my power... :confused: its to dangerous :confused: