Combining Water and Light
Been thinking about this.
Light basically IS electromagnetism. The warmer an electromagnet, the stronger it is. Water is often used to cool one.
The cork prevented the ‘light’ from being cooled. MIB’s people were working around this by recombining the two in the FDW well.
You’re guess is as good as mine as to how this ties in w/leaving the island, (they could have been putting out the earth’s core for I know) … but I do know we have some physicists on this site and maybe they can add to our knowledge.
waycurious,
so glad you posted something about this…
I actually noticed, the cork did NOT make a tight seal on the hole. There are 4 channels (i think 4?) that were around the hole, which I’m thinking allowed a steady stream of water into the energy source. That was the purpose of the corked pool, to allow a steady measured stream of water into the energy source..
2 guesses on this; the water either provided a cooling effect for the energy source, or it was the right fuel for it..Water is H2O (sure you know that), if it was broken into it’s elements as it poured into energy source, Hydrogen would result, Hydrogen is fuel for thermonuclear reaction (2 hydrogens= 1 Helium+ Energy) in a star…Those are the only 2 scientific explanations I can come up with.. I’m no physicist, but I did sleep at Holiday Inn last night…
No matter, it’s still neat that it’s water, that you need to “channel” the right balance of water and the light to obtain the reaction (as MIB said..)
To get an EM field that the island has, you would need a few things…I had to dig a bit for proper terms, so bear with me if this is incorrect, Im sure it will be pointed out if it is…
The light represents a magnet, hence the knife sticking to the well…
Water is diamagnetic, and carries a slight response to the magnetic field, depending on the strength…which kind of makes sense that it stops upon removing the cork, and starts running again once the cork is returned.
The permanent magnet will produce a magnetic field emanating from the poles, the permanent dipole will create a electric-field emanating from the poles. The permanent magnet is a magnetic dipole as opposed to the water molecule which is an electric dipole.
Both of these are necessary to create the Electro-Magnetic field…that ultimately surrounds the island. So with the combination of the light and water, in a controlled and obviously science fictional way using the wheel…the amount of energy was able to be released and almost measured it seems.
They have shown that the energy can be used for time travel, and alluded that there are ways to create wormholes of sorts, like I think the one to Tunisia is in a way…
If the people understood that the energy was powerful, as they probably did, they may have very well known what it was capable of too…
Again, not sure how helpful this is, trying to make sense of it…
oh wow AES, that’s good stuff
Good one. I hate those commercials, but that made me laugh out loud!
How’s this …maybe MIB & buds were trying to cool it enough remove the barrier that required such specific barings to leave/find the island. They were probably experimenting with the proper balance when Mother Dearest came by.
Initially, MIB didn’t want to destroy the island. He was working w/his people to leave. Eventually, though, he transferred his hatred of being trapped on the island to the island itself (as well as his brother).
Als for why he wasn’t let leave … people would ask questions or those once on the island would talk The biggest fear would be greedy people (like I still believe Widmore was) would come to the island, discover it’s heart, and try to take it for themselves (unwittingly, destroying the world).
The purpose of the cork was to balance people leaving/finding the island against the island remaining functional.
AND, maybe this was all discovered ages ago … when the island was still attached to Tunesia (I went a little far with that ‘eh?)
I think AES slept in a better Holiday Inn last night than I did, definitely read his!
@waycurious
ya man! went far,and deep..
actually really like what you said:
“The purpose of the cork was to balance people leaving/finding the island against the island remaining functional.”
That really has me thinking..That touches on something true about the island, it’s a duality:
MIB-leave+harness energy:Jacob-stay+protect energy..
Dharma’s initial intent to harness energy: but Dharma built Swan to hold back energy
Widmore use energy: Daniel respect energy
I’m a physicist but scifi physics doesn’t usually have a lot in common with physics so I don’t feel that I can be of much help here.
Instead, the Light makes me associate a lot to the light that some people claim to have seen during near-death experiences and this somehow ties in to the light behind the door that Christian opens up in the end. The Light is somehow Life, right?
Damn! Great theories. This is what keeps us alive after Lost ended.
I love reading your ideas, really. I think we could make one of the best TV series/movies/books by gathering all your ideas. Many of the people in this site could be great writers!
Waycurious…not too far at all with the Tunisia once being where the island was…I have been saying that for a bit now…good call…
ilie…thats just it, Scifi and the spiritual afterlife…they tie those together with the islands capabilities…I think its a big point missed in the overall scheme when it comes down to some thinking much of the show was non-essential.
There are many theories as to why he couldnt leave…leads me to ask, why couldnt Desmond Hume leave…god knows he tried…
Sometimes people arent supposed to leave, as we have learned, and I think mother knew that MIb wasnt supposed to leave, and that he just couldnt.
By him trying to leave, it would only lead to tampering with the light in the long run of things, which we see play out…
I really dont think mother kept MIB from leaving until she collapsed the well, up to then it was his choice not to leave based on what she told him…
Once the incident with him killing mother, and Jacob throwing him into the light, the reason changed…
The island does, along with its other properties have the ability to represent “hell”, whether its “The Hell” is unknown…
But it certainly proves the point with Michael, and I think it did the same with MIB.
He was a bad person in the long run of his life up until Jacob “killed” his body…then his soul was left to roam the island like Michaels…
Only because MIb was thrown into the light, he can materialize via the smoke, or more likely vapor from the energy of the light/water, combining with his soul/conscious…obviously Lost mythology…
When the cork was removed, the islands power was halted, and MIb became human again, able to leave hell in a physical form, only to be thwarted by Jack, those damn Losties Kids, and their mangy mutt…becuase he could also now be killed because he is “human” again…
Good post, lots of ideas being thrown about…
Interesting post Waycurious. I once read about a man named Victor Shauberger (I need to double check the spelling on the name) who lived during the early part of the 20th century. He came from a long line of family that were caretakers of forrests in Germany. He observed how water flowed through channels and was able to design log flumes that mimicked how water flowed naturally and prevented the logs from jamming the flumes. He supposedly used this knowledge to design machines that generated electromagnetism using the same principles.
This is interesting, i guess the seemingly random mythology stuff can still have some scientific explanation.
Its also cool that the cave/light represented life, death and rebirth (some people are saying) and water and light are both vital resources needed to live. I’m stating the obvious, but it is interesting.
A lot of early cultures revered caves as the birthplace of the world because of their resemblance to female genitalia. There is a cab in Crete that is thought to have contained the umbilical cord of Zeus at one point. It is a recurring theme in a lot of cultures and it fits the bill for the housing of the source on Lost.
That should read ‘cave,’ not ‘cab.’ Stupid predictive text.
Along those lines, I wonder if the numbers that were being typed into the computer were also connected to some kind of water source, releasing a set amount of water every 108 minutes and cooling the “core” before the magnetic field could grow too strong… in this case, it would have been a preventative measure rather than to manipulate the island’s properties…
@clairespb
I’ve thought about that before too..that seems to be a viable remedy. Seems too simple actually.. The Swan station must be there as a preventive measure, although it was originally intended to harness the energy. Maybe the Dharma folks built a huge computerized mechanism to help negate the energy periodically (108 minutes), but they failed to recognize the inherent properties of water were there the entire time
@bobt
thanks for the insight, i didn’t realize the station was originally intended to harness the energy – so like you said, perhaps they converted whatever mechanism they were using to harness it to negate it instead… which may or may not have involvled water, though with their scientific knowledge i would guess that at some point they would have experimented with it..
The Swan. Genius. They pressed the button to periodically release the energy.
Turning the key may have been quenched the electromagnetism like removing the cork, and allowed our Losties access to the island by temporarily breaking the barrier, or whatever it is that allowed you to the island w/o having perfect bearings. (Perhaps, MIB could have planned an escape this way … )
The Swan was to study the unique electromagnetic fluctuations of the area. Perhaps they adjusted things so they could leave the island and allow the drops, or maybe they just learned the bearings.
The numbers were on the hatch so they could remember them. (I contend the numbers were a password to confirm someone else hadn’t taken over the hatch.)
If this is true, it’s a great example of how one overthinks. A cork + water did just as well for thousands of years.
Also, maybe the FDW was frozen for this same cooling principle, with the wheel as the button.
These are all AWESOME ideas and thoughts! I’m glad to find a post (in the post-finale world) that isn’t riddled with complaints, but just an energetic discussion on the features of the show. Thanks waycurious for starting this..
Maybe ilieintheshadowofthestatue (get a shorter screen name!) can shed some more “light” on this than I, but I’ve heard of theories surrounding space-time travel vuia wormholes created by ultra-high gravtiational fields. If EM energy is so closely associated with gravity (magnetism), then it’s possible that what turning the key, spinning the wheel, and removing the cork does is allow the EM energy to build-up so immensely in such a small area that it creates a wormhole effect.
I’ve also read that if wormholes are even possible to create, they would be open for only an instant before collapsing in on itself (flashes/discharge?).