Scientific Inquiry in Alchemy
Chapter 3: Flat Clay
Schedule:
(Inserted Lab) Lab #4: Informal Alchemy's Instructions in Relation to GravityLab #5: Alternative Energy Sources
Lab #6: Alchemy's Quick Circle Energy Output (Advanced Alchemists Only)
Lab #4: Informal Alchemy's Instructions in Relation to Gravity
Materials: one block of clay (dimensions at a reasonably small size), one toy truck, and one stuffed animal; alchemy circle, chalk, and two people
Hypothesis: No matter how big or small the object at the center of the alchemy circle is, the object will be crushed by the downward exert of energy from the gas particles in the air.
Procedure:
Draw the alchemy circle with no words written within the circle. The circle must be 10 feet in diameter.
Place one object in the center.
Perform alchemy.
Repeat this process for the other two objects listed in the Materials section.
Observations: All the materials were crushed. The stuffed animal was very flat. The fluff was not fluffy, but rather panned out. Even the plastic from the eyes were a bit smothered, but small chunks were still present. The toy truck was only crumbs; not too small. The crumbs were the size of small rocks. The clay is flat.
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"Hey, Al," I said. "What if we were to put a live animal into the alchemy circle?"
"No," he said. "That would just crush the animal."
"But, do you want to see what happens to it?" I asked. "Let's see if the alchemy circle will crush the animal."
"No," he said stubbornly, still looking at me very hard.
"Fine we won't try it," I said and looked down at the chalk circle.
"Fine, we'll try it, but on something very small," he gave in and looked at the circle as well. "How about a fly?"
I stared at him in disbelief. "A fly? How can we observe how flat a fly is?"
"Well, like you said, the fly may not get crushed. It could bloat up," he suggested lightly.
"A cat."
"No! Ed, come on. It'll die!" Al pleaded, but something inside me, the motive to learn more – the spark of excitement in science was so strong, I could not bear it.
"Oh, come on, Al! It's just one cat. It's for science! There are people who have lab rats, and I don't hear you complaining to them. One day, we'll use live animals, and it'll get hurt one day anyways –"
"But we're not scientists yet!" he yelled. "We aren't in a lab. Why don't we read some past labs that have –"
"But Al, there are no past labs. There is no lab book. I can't find any. We came so far…"
At that moment, I realized the ethics of animal experimentation.
"One cat," I said with a straight face.
"Fine, but I'm not taking part in it!" he said stubbornly and started to walk away.
"Wait! Al, come on! It's just one cat! What's one cat?"
"We're only kids!" Al yelled and walked out the door.
I know about ethics. I have morals. I know we are kids, but what does that imply? That we can't experiment with animals until ten years later? We have the knowledge and the motivation of any alchemist out there. No one would dare have gone so far as we did to experiment with alchemy. One cat was good enough. It is just one cat. What harm could killing one cat do? Besides, it wasn't as if the alchemy circle will guarantee a crushed cat.
I can perform the experiment without the help of Al. He'll just miss the experiment and all the excitement.
Lab #4: Informal Alchemy's Instructions in Relation to Gravity (repeated)
Materials: one cat, one alchemist, one piece of chalk
Repeat the same procedure in Lab #4, except with one cat.
Hypothesis: The cat will be crushed and die.
Purpose: To prove that gravity will pull the energy exerted in a downward direction during the alchemy process.
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Before I did the experiment, I checked one last time by the door to see if Al was there. He wasn't. Figures. It was just one cat.
I put my hands on the alchemy circle, wondering, "Could it be possible for one alchemist to perform this?"
The circle was only 10 feet in diameter. I pressed my hands against the floor, and the alchemy process began.
The cat was sleeping at the center, so peacefully. I had second thoughts, but then it was too late. The cat suddenly yelped, being pressed against the ground, moaning. The fur grew flat. Its eyes grew wide and began to turn red. It was panting, but the gravity was so strong, it could not expand its lungs to breathe. Suddenly, the cat burst. Hot blood spattered all over the floor, and some went onto my face. Extreme heat came from the process in the form of wind and gushed towards me. I couldn't let go. Bits of cat pieces flew in my direction. Other bits sprinkled itself onto a nearby window. I could hear someone screaming, then finally, with the hot wind still gushing at me, forcing me off the floor, the process stopped, and I spun in the direction of the hot wind, crashing into the bloody wall, and fell limp.
The door opened.
"Ed!" Al ran to me. "Are you okay?"
I opened my eyes, shocked from the hot wind. I realized my arms were shaking. I felt weak. I wanted to lie down. I looked at all the blood around the room, and the jacket of fur in the center of circle.
"I killed it?" I asked, walking limply and slowly to the center of the circle.
There laid an eye, with the vessels still connected to the head, but the eyeball itself detached from the body. The alchemy circle had the pieces fly from the center. Being only one foot away, and I could feel the heat coming from the center – coming from the cat, or if you could call it a cat anymore.
I turned to look at Al, and had a face of disgust come back at me.
"See, Ed?" he said. "You killed the thing. I told you it would be crushed!"
My shoes were painted red.
"I told you not to do it. I told you it would be crushed like the other stuff. Why didn't you do it with another stuffed animal?" He spoke as though he were the elder brother.
"I…I wanted to see how heat could affect…the alchemy circle…" I said, trying to find the right words.
"What heat?" he asked.
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Conclusion of Lab #4, the first Lab #4 and the repeated Lab #4: With materials that are inorganic, it was crushed by the energy exerted from the gas particles. The gas particles flow in a downward direction because of gravity. With materials that are organic, such as a cat, when the energy presses down onto the object, the energy, in the form of heat heats the organic material (as it does the same and heats inorganic materials), the organism will burst from the input of extreme heat. Alchemy does not have to be performed with two people. One alchemist is sufficient enough for certain alchemy processes.
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When my mom found out about the experiment of the cat, how our neighbor cried because I kidnapped her cat and used it for alchemy, I was severely punished.
"You are never to experiment alchemy with living animals," my mom said. "How would you like to be put in the middle of the circle, and have whatever that circle did to you? You're thinking of too much science. Don't you know this is a living life?" And on goes my mom with living things and to respect it. Although it is such a sorrowful act as to use animals in experiments, I promised my mom that I would never use organic materials in my experiments.
Going against my mother's wishes, I used organic materials again. I tried to revive back the dead cat.
"It's the least I can do, Al. So are you with me?" I asked.
"No. You made a promise. Just forget the cat."
It was no time to persuade my brother with words. Silence is golden.
I looked at the ground of the lab room, thinking. Then, I looked up. "Are you sure? It's a good thing."
"Okay," Al said. "How are we going to make the alchemy circle not crush anything we put in the middle?"
"If we try hard enough – "
"Like…the sentence from our Alchemy textbook: 'The Alchemist is the true controller of Alchemy processes. Any Alchemist who cannot control their Alchemy processes are not Alchemists…'" he said, and with that, we went to work, scrubbing the blood off the wall and picking up the scraps of the cat's body back to the center. We pieced the scraps together, leg with body, ear on head, and so on and so forth.
"No Alchemist has ever done this," Alfonse breathed out, after I had joined the lines that joined the circumference of the alchemy circle.
"We'll be the first," I said.
Alfonse looked at me seriously. "If anything happens…"
"Nothing will happen."
He looked around. "Where's the lab book?"
"I'm not going to record it."
"Why not?"
"Mom might find that lab, and if this experiment doesn't work, she'll yell at me. Don't worry. I don't think anything will happen anyways. Just more crushing," I patted my brother on the shoulder.
"Yeah, and more blood and scraps to pick up later, then," Al said. Just like Al – to always look in the optimistic point of view, huh?
We placed our hands on the circle. We had all the materials necessary for a cat's body. The cat's blood was replaced with our blood.
We looked at each other one last time, as though we were going to say goodbye. It was recorded that only 100 alchemists have died trying this alchemy. Were our lives worth one cat? No, but the science motivation drove me to these lengths. I seem to gamble with life more and more as I continue these experiments, but something in me tinkered, as to say that everything will be alright. That no one was going to die.
The alchemy process started. The circle was approximated 100 feet in diameter. The limit of potential energy will be reached. Our eyes were kept on the pile of scraps in the center. As we felt intense heat, the cat scraps slowly reassembled itself. It was not being crushed. How could that be possible? The arrangement of molecules, the synthesis of the different compounds, and the eye socket going back into the head all happened in front of our eyes. Then, the cat scraps stopped assembling itself. The alchemy circle demanded more energy! So close to the return of a soul to Earth!
My arms started to shake. I felt weak. I could barely lift my head anymore. The alchemy circle was draining my concentration and energy away from me. Soon, I was so exhausted, I could barely breathe. I suddenly thought that this cat's life is not worth both of ours, so as if by miracle, I was able to let go of the circle. I kicked Al's arms so that his hands would lose contact with the circle as well. The alchemy process stopped immediately, and we fell unconscious.
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Ideas of Grafting Mammalian Bodies: Although grafting refers to plants, where parts of a plant cut off can be rejoined to another limb by following a process, the process of alchemy to repair loose limbs such as this may be to assemble the limbs together at the center of the circle, then undergo the alchemy process. This experiment was never done.
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I put the last bandage on Al.
"Hide all your cuts and bruises by wearing a long sleeve shirt," I instructed and gave him an old sweater of mine.
He obediently listened and wore it, despite the hot day.
Something had made the alchemy circle use the energy in our bodies to compensate for the limited potential energy. I realized that there is no limit in the alchemy process. There is a limit as to how much energy the alchemy process can weed out of the air, but the rest comes from the alchemists' bodies. Alchemy's Law of Limited Potential Energy is still true, for there is only a limit as to how much energy the circle takes from the particles in the air, but there may be no limit as to how much energy they can take from alchemists. It really depends on how many alchemists are performing the alchemy process. But, in terms of how the energy had been taking, the alchemy process had caused the breaking of skin and cuts of blood vessels, causing bruises. I was just glad none of our neuron cells or brain cells broke. Next time, may not be so lucky. We only had half the cat assembled, nothing that great. The cat was still a corpse. It was a failed experiment, but yet I learned so much.
After wearing long sleeve shirts and long pants, we vowed to each other that we would never perform a process of trying to "revive the dead". It cost us our health, and for what? One cat? Why did I think of such experiment?
Lab #5: Alternative Energy Sources (not needed to be performed)
Alchemy's Law of Alternative Energy Sources (proven from past experiments not recorded): When performing alchemy, when the Alchemist's/Alchemists' will for the alchemy circle to perform an action is strong, the limited potential energy is reached, but the alchemy circle will demand from the Alchemist's/s' energy, where results will vary from experiment to experiment in terms of a health conditions.
Lab #6: Alchemy's Quick Circle Energy Output (Advanced Alchemists Only)
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"Hey, Ed! Look at this!" Al pointed his finger on the title, "Alchemy's Quick Circle Energy Output (Advanced Alchemists Only)" and underneath it "Should be performed by Certified Instructors and/or Advanced Alchemists who have passed the Grade 8 test". "What's the Grade 8 test?"
"Well, whatever it is, I don't care. The whole lab is in here, results, analysis, and procedure! Let's read the results, then do the experiment!" I said.
"But did you pass the Grade 8 test?" he asked while eyeing me.
"No, but then again, they say that Instructors must perform, so basically, since we are instructing ourselves, then, I guess we're up to the challenge!"
"Fine. But if you do it, I get to do it too!" Al said stubbornly.
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Okay, I'm pretty tired right now. It's late at night, and I'll see how good my chapter three is. If I should continue, please say so. Thanks. A simple, short review is all I need. I don't ask for whole essays, but if you wish to write it, then you may. I think I got one review elaborating on all this science, which is very acceptable. By all means, if you have an idea, tell me in a review as well! Reviews don't always have to be opinions, but short, one word, reviews tell me whether people are still interested in this story. Thanks again, and extra thanks to those who read this whole chapter.
And do you know how hard it is to make up these labs and laws? You got to word it right and…yeah, just review, please.