(OT) Request for an answer to a difficult mathematical question

[Edena_of_Neith]

I must respectfully disagree with something said a very long time ago by Gary Gygax in the 1st Edition version of the Dungeon Master's Guide for the Advanced Dungeons and Dragons Game:

(to paraphrase Gary Gygax)

A spellcaster does not draw power from within himself. If he did, even a 1st level spell would leave him exhausted, while a 3rd level spell would surely drain him of life!

- - -

What I am disagreeing about is not whether a spellcaster draws power from within - MOST spellcasters are depicted as drawing power from WITHOUT, be it in RPGs or in books of fantasy.

What I AM disputing is that a spellcaster could not draw power from within to create truly superpowerful magical effects.
I believe a spellcaster could draw power from within, to perform any of the magic in the D&D game, and a greater part of that magic portrayed in fantasy books.

My premise for this is based upon the amount of energy an average person has in his or her body.
That amount, is staggering.
And if you accept - just for a moment - that perhaps the people of fantasy can have as much energy stored in their bodies as people in Real Life have stored in their bodies, then why not stored/innate/potential magic as well?

Thus, I am supposing that fantasy characters could have incredible amounts of energy stored in them, as people in Real Life do.
And if these fantasy characters have incredible amounts of energy stored in them, then why not incredible amounts of magic?
I see no problem with that supposition at all, and therefore I must disagree with the statement (paraphrased) of Gary Gygax above.

- - -

The question is: just how much energy is stored in a given Real Life human being?

Let us suppose that:

This Real Life human is a male, 6 feet tall, 185 pounds, and has eaten a hearty meal within the last hour.
This Real Life human has a body composition of a typical, healthy person - average in all respects for this purpose.

If this Real Life person's mass is converted into energy, and this is expressed as an explosion, how big is the explosion?
Can anyone answer that, or express the energy in Joules or other measurements?

I know there is a lot of energy - the answer is some truly enormous figure.
The question is, how enormous? Just exactly how big?

Any mathematicians out there who can answer this one?

 

[Mark]

Is this in the right forum (currently in Non-RPG Sci-Fi/Fantasy Discussion)?

 

[Edena_of_Neith]

I hope it is.

I wasn't exactly sure WHICH Forum to put this thread in.

If the Moderators move it somewhere else, I'll just head over to the board they select as appropriate and hope someone there can answer the question.

I sure as heck cannot answer the question!

 

[Darkness]

I moved it to General Discussion since it's not about "movies, shows or books."

 

[Noldor Elf]

Since E = mc^2, where
E = energy
m = mass (in kilograms) and
c = speed of light = 3,0 x 10^8 m/s

So our typical human (weight 185 pounds = 93 kilograms) has total energy
E = 93 kg x (3,0x10^8 m/s)^2 = 8.37 x 10^18 Joules

 

[Zappo]

Just as a comment to Noldor Elf's calculations, that is probably enough to blow up an average nation or a small continent. Though I think there should be some consideration about the efficiency of magic in converting that energy to whatever effect is being done. At those scales, even a slight heat dispersion would probably set the wizard on fire or blow him up (assuming that he's only sacrificing a pound of fat or so, not that he would survive the conversion of his entire body to energy anyway).

Thinking about that, it makes for an interesting system! Fail a check, and the heat dispersion goes up, fail it hard enough with a powerful spell and you pass out, catch fire, or blow up. The more powerful the spell, the more danger. Since efficiency is never 100% (2nd law of thermodynamics, IIRC), whenever you cast a spell you heat up a little, making spellcasting tiring and eventually damaging. A good explanation for chainmail bikinis.

 

[Vaxalon]

Gygax wasn't talking about total conversion, he was talking about ordinary chemical energy stored in ATP, glucose, etc. readily available by normal processes.

Your body runs on about 1000 watts of power, at most. Not a lot.

 

[Zappo]

Since E = mc^2, where
E = energy
m = mass (in kilograms) and
c = speed of light = 3,0 x 10^8 m/s

So our typical human (weight 185 pounds = 93 kilograms) has total energy
E = 93 kg x (3,0x10^8 m/s)^2 = 8.37 x 10^18 Joules

Oh, and speed of light is about 3 x 10^11 m/s. So the energy is 8.37 x 10^24.

 

[Xeriar]

About 100 Watts, actually, when resting. A large (well-built) personn performing some strenuous activity may be using as much as 500...

A pound of fat, however, is equivelant to about eleven million joules of energy. This is why losing weight can suck

Even still, it's difficult to imagine all of the power coming from within, largely because of the type of effects the spells make.

 

[Zappo]

I still find the idea of a nuclear wizard kinda funny.