Mercury vs. Metal

[Yonder]

I've done several conductivity tests between metal and mercury.

I've built an equal length strip of both metal and mercury and put one dot of thunder on each of their sides. Since thunder goes left in mercury and in metal it goes right I had to do it on opposite sides.

This is what I got:



For some reason, the dot of thunder is one pixel ahead of the one in metal! Both dots of thunder immediately hit each of the elements so it was not an unfair advantage.

What are your thoughts? Is this just a failed test?

Note: The large red line is Grid 1 to see the middle point. It's also not centered very well because this picture wasn't cropped properly. But I can assure you that it was fair.

[Fringe Pioneer]

Location of thunder affects path of thunder. Did each thunder pixel go immediately and directly into the element instead of taking an indirect path that thunder sometimes takes?

[Yonder]

As I've written, they went immediately into the element.

[Qwerty]

Huh. Did one go to the side before it entered? Did you check the frame right after it started?

[Yonder]

I checked everything right, I even remade the test several times for optimal performance. Everything was as it had to be (including thunder, frames, etc).

Maybe it was just a glitch?

[GloveParty]

Perhaps the movement of the mercury accelerated the conductivity?

[Yonder]

Any liquid only moves if the pixel left, right, or below it is empty. And since it was a 4 pixel line, there is no room for it to move.

[Rabidbadger]

Try it at greater distances, like asking 'which one gets three-quarters of the way towards the other end first?'
If there is a greater difference between them at greater distances, then your experiment is not failed.

[Yonder]

Jul 4, 2010 17:56:34 GMT Rabidbadger said:

Try it at greater distances, like asking 'which one gets three-quarters of the way towards the other end first?'
If there is a greater difference between them at greater distances, then your experiment is not failed.

I've tested it again, and it has the same results.
The thunder in mercury is not 1 pixel but 2 (edit: 3) pixels farther than the one in metal at 3/4 of the course. Here's another picture:

[GloveParty]

My only remaining guess is that it has to do with directions. Much of PG's effects are directionally-based.

[Rabidbadger]

It seems that the growth in distance is exponential, revealing that either Mercury is a slightly better conductor, or it, as Glove said, directionally based.

[ganondorfchampin]

Try doing mercury on top and metal on the bottom.

[Yonder]

Jul 6, 2010 23:11:37 GMT ganondorfchampin said:

Try doing mercury on top and metal on the bottom.

At 1/2:


At 3/4:


They're just like the other results. I checked frame-by-frame.

[greggster990]

this is interesting

[Yonder]

gregg, if you don't have anything to say to this topic, then please do not post. I'm trying to find out if there is any reason behind this mess.

[noodlesoup]

In the first picture, if you take into account that the center line can only be represented on the game by a two pixel wide line, then you can see that both pixels of thunder are on the center line. This means that if they started at an equal distance away from the two outer edges of the screen, they traveled at the same average speed.

Here is an experiment:

0032000000000*02002*01*03*06*05*0800400A*0700B*09*0C*0F*0E*0H00D00J*0G00K*0I*0L*0O*0N*0Q00M00S*0P00T*0R*0U*0X*0W*0Z00V00b*0Y00c*0a*0d*0g*0f*0i00e00k*0h00l*0j*0m*0p*0o*0r00n00t*0q00u*0s*0v*03m00q00P00o0Eu0*o11P1000Bu12015P14*06u16*19P18*05u1A*1DP1C002u1E01HP1G*00u1I*1LP1Ku1Mu1PP1OP1Ro13o1T017o1Ut00y00100m00z01y1Yq01m00x1Ym1a01X10.01Zx1fz1b11im1e11Zz00f1hq1dx1cP1pt1a11mx1sf00p1XP1pp00n1c01j10.P1zy0*f1xn1*m1nq23p1XS1zn25x1Y*0210412D*2C*2F*1Yw1my1cT0.y1Yu1dy1sT1xy2L01Zy2Np1hu2M10.S00T2O11iq1hy1X02K11Xy01q2Yy2cy1Yy2Z*0y*0x*2i00w02k*2h02l*2j*2m*2p*2o*2r02n02t*2q02u*2s*2v*2y*2x*2.02w02ty1x0lL7

See how long it takes for each pixel of thunder to reach the torch again.

Repeated trials gave me these results:

Trial	Leading Pixel of Thunder
1	Draw
2	Mercury (1 px lead)
3	Draw
4	Metal (1 px lead)
5	Metal (1 px lead)
6	Mercury (1 px lead)

Looks like they travel at the same speed with a tiny amount of randomness.

[Yonder]

The lines weren't two pixels because it was zoomed in. However you are right about your experiment; I hope this cleans up this whole mess.

[Rabidbadger]

So there is our solution, it appears. In six trials it is a 2:2:2 ratio of draws, mercury, and iron.
It appears that the randomness still affects the thunder all through its life; at least until a directional change.

[Yonder]

So we did get something useful out of this! How convenient.