Freezing and shattering

[Toa Zaz]

This happens pretty often in Bionicle; someone or something gets frozen, and then is easily shattered. The problem with this is

 

1. From my knowledge it's impossible. If a substance was frozen then it wouldn't adopt the properties of ice, right?

 

2. It's contradicted a couple times. In Island of Doom, Avak's weapon is frozen, so he gets rid of the ice by hitting it against a rock. Also, if I recall correctly, in Prisoners of the Pit, Pridak and Takadox are frozen, but then shatter the ice.

 

Am I totally ignorant about physics, or is this really a logical problem?

[bonesiii]

First of all, we're talking about a fictional substance, protodermis, so its properties are whatever the authors say they are. If they wanted it to be "adopting the properties of ice" that's certainly possible (though that's not exactly what's going on IMO).

 

Secondly, it's normal in real life. Google "liquid nitrogen" and you can find a vast array of confirmation on this. (The nitrogen has to be very cold to be liquid, and rapidly sucks heat out of materials. Then they usually become very brittle.) This happens for the same reason that solid is the coolest state of matter, meaning the bonds are strongest. Stronger bonds equals more brittle; closer to liquid equals more flexible in general, depending on the material. Ice is actually fairly different from a lot of other materials (water in general is weird ), in that it is brittle at a fairly warm temperature.

 

2. It's contradicted a couple times. In Island of Doom, Avak's weapon is frozen, so he gets rid of the ice by hitting it against a rock.

With a reminder-caution again that this is protodermis so the authors make the rules, have you ever watched Deadliest Catch (opies season)? Hitting ice-encrusted metal can indeed break the ice off without shattering it. You have to get most metals reeeally cold for them to turn that brittle (hence liquid nitrogen).

 

Most likely it's the organics that are most worried about shattering when someone is frozen, not the metal. In real life, organics are mostly water, so freezing a biological being would definately risk shattering them like ice because they literally are part ice. We don't know much about organic protodermis, but protodermis generally mimics the physics of real matter so it's probably a safe bet that it acts the same here too.

 

Still, if a Toa of Ice puts more cold than normal into it they might be able to make even protometal brittle enough to shatter.

[LewaLew]

My guess is that it's because "BIONICLE physics aren't real world physics".

 

Which translated means artistic license.

 

That's the way most physics go in BIONICLE.

Edited May 30, 2013 by LewaLew

[Canis Lycaon]

Sold objects can become extremely brittle when exposed to cold. Organics especially, but metal at much lower temperatures. This is BIONICLE, so that extreme amount of cold can be generated, and there is also the possibility it doesn't need to be as cold.

[Sumiki]

I never found this to be inconsistent. Ice is literally an element and I've always thought that elements are Protodermic states of matter. Freezing something would then mean that you literally turn them into ice, which would make them easy to break, but simply covering someone with ice doesn't do the trick.

[Toa Zaz]

Thanks, question answered.

[Click]

Also, generally that type of freezing is referred to as "flash freezing" in many things I've seen, so there's probably a difference between that and normal freezing which may behave differently.

[bonesiii]

Thanks, question answered.

Okay, cool. I'm guessing that means you're okay with this being closed now (PM me if there's anything to add). Closified.