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In my magic system characters possess the ability to control air and wind. They can usually expel 300 mph winds from their body however these winds lack force over distance. I should clarify that the magic system is based on controlling the velocity of things touching the body like air. So if a magic user wanted to create an intense wind then they would increase its speed when it is touching the body.

I was thinking of a way to increase the force over distance of these winds and I found the phenomena of jet blast which allows jet engines to push objects with massive concussive force. Sadly jet engines usually possess air compressors, fuel compartments, and combustion chambers which would be too heavy for a human to have on their body.

So how could a magic user pressurise their already powerful wind for a jet blast like effect to occur? Also for clarity reasons I will include some more details unlike my previous questions.

  • The maximum distance of this spell can be from 5 meters to 30 meters.
  • the magic user should still look like a human.
  • The pressurised air should be able to blow people away several feet away or cause significant damage to objects.

Also, the user is aiming to push away a distant object instead of themselves.

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    $\begingroup$ Also if there are any errors can you guys please point them out to me $\endgroup$
    – Coolcats112
    Commented May 7 at 17:03
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    $\begingroup$ As I recently mentioned to another user, trying to scientifically or "realistically" describe magic is painful for experienced authors. A blast of air requires gathering and compressing air into a small space that is then expelled in a controlled manner. Are you opening a portal through which the wind is drawn? Or is the wind being pulled from behind the mage until expelled at the point of outstretched hands? If the later, how is the mage standing against the storm he/she is creating? Frankly, magic usually just "happens." That's the nature of magic. Explaining it causes problems. $\endgroup$
    – JBH
    Commented May 7 at 17:21
  • $\begingroup$ "expel 300 mph winds from their body" ahh, the good old Mordenkainen's Vindaloo. $\endgroup$
    – Starfish Prime
    Commented May 7 at 18:32
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    $\begingroup$ Corollary to what JBH said: your readers need to know the tools in the character’s problem solving tool box and their capabilities and limitations, but not how the tools actually work. If you want an invisible wall making mage and a fire generating mage to work together to make an invisible jet engine, that's awesome and by all means describe the workings of a jet engine for your audience. If you want a wind mage to make wind, you want to just tell your audience how much wind she can make and what it costs her to do it, ... $\endgroup$
    – g s
    Commented May 7 at 18:55
  • $\begingroup$ ... not that how she does it by making an invisible jet engine, or the audience will want to know why she isn't also a fire mage and an invisible wall mage! $\endgroup$
    – g s
    Commented May 7 at 18:55

3 Answers 3

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Funnel and spin the wind, that is all.

If the Wind Mage can speed up the wind touching their body, then all they have to do is to force the entirety of the air touching any part of their skin (clothing?) to move towards their outstretched hand, than to the tip of their finger. As the air passed their elbow, force it to blow in a corkscrew fashion.

What ejects from your finger is a 1cm thick rod of tornado, spin controlled to flight straight in a narrow path rather than an expanding cone. Doing so greatly increased the pressure and thus, power of your air attack.

Depending on how much mass of air molecules can you move at once, this would result in anything from a relatively harmless "airgun" that punches people with a lance of pressurized air, to something that can instantly kill a person.

The real bonus of course is that as you move air, the air can move stuff. Your air lance can be used to launch an arrow, a pebble, pick up sand, or burning vapor to turn your wind attack into a air crossbow, sandblaster or a flamethrower.

Go further! Grow a long, thin fingernail, and funnel your wind power to concentrate to a milimeter wide point at its end before you launch it. Now your air lance loses most of its range, but grows tremendously more powerful. You can now slice people apart with a supersonic dagger of air.

As a corollary, being able to concentrate air pressure also means you can create sound. Add sonic booms to your repertoire of tricks.

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Move more air into the same place

Your magic users can control where air is, and therefore, can control its pressure.

  • Imagine a 1m^3 box. At standard temperature and pressure, there’s about 2.5*10^25 air molecules in that box.
  • Using your powers, hold the air molecules in that box in place. They can jiggle around, but keep them from leaving the box.
  • Using your powers, move additional air into the box. If you double the number of molecules, you double the pressure. Repeat as many times as your powers will sustain.

This isn’t a very complicated operation: it’s basically what a bike pump does. I suspect that for people able to move wind at 300 mph, it will be trivial.

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If they can push air 300mph out of their body then they're exerting a force on it that Newton says will create an equal and opposite force on their body. It's not about the distance the wind travels after that, it's all about the force between the body and the air that gets the air moving to begin with.

Even if their skin isn't applying the force to the air directly, if you're moving air at 300mph away from a person, then it's leaving behind a lot of empty space that the still air surrounding them wants to fill just as quickly. Your character will end up creating a 300mph wind that envelops their body, and that will move them easily on its own.

Consider that wind in even the strongest tornadoes barely exceeds 300mph, far weaker tornadoes can pick up people and even cars and houses easily. You already have all the air pressure you need.

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  • $\begingroup$ The air would still have low density and thus lack range like if 10kg of wind was moving at 300 mph it would do far less damage than if a bunch of high pressure wind was moving 300 mph $\endgroup$
    – Coolcats112
    Commented May 7 at 18:54
  • $\begingroup$ Range really isn't a factor. Everything that can move a given volume of air at 300mph is going to push it the same distance, assuming controlled test conditions. Air compresses under force, and moving air has had force applied to it, so your 300mph is already "high pressure". Your problem may be that you imagine the volume of air is too small (a sneeze can hit 100mph but moves too little air to be actually useful), in which case I'm not sure you can achieve your goal in a rational way. $\endgroup$
    – talrnu
    Commented May 7 at 19:11
  • $\begingroup$ ...I see, I misunderstood the question - you're not asking how to make the wind move the caster, but a distant target. Might want to clarify that in the question, when you talk about jet engines pushing things it's usually referring to the thing the engine is attached to. $\endgroup$
    – talrnu
    Commented May 7 at 19:16

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