[Alhazred]

Originally Posted by CrazyPerson

Before anything else, I'd just like to say that my person opinion is that the flowers are a red herring, a distraction, and that it means nothing. Moving on...
A) Sounds good. Uiharu could have obtained the tayaki immediately after baking and her effect kept it warm.
B) Since all espers generate an AIM field, I posit that certain AIM fields extend further from an individual depending the individual. In this case, once Uiharu touches the box, her field envelops the box. Her ability then simply applies to everything within the field. Complexity wouldn't matter, but this is speculation. Uiharu probably has to consciously expand her AIM field power to objects she's touching though, Saten had to hug Uiharu in ep13 to stay warm.

I agree that 'range' and 'frame of reference' are probably both functions of her AIM field. I raised the idea of complex systems mostly because the series seems to lean heavily on 'calculation power' as a measurement of ability.

Originally Posted by CrazyPerson

C) Not being able to handle hot objects is actually a huge argument against entropy stop. If entropy stops the moment she touches an object, heat transfer immediately stops. She could then touch anything she wanted to and maintain that temperature for the item. She says she can't handle hot items because she can't touch them, not because she can't keep it that warm.

It's not necessarily the case that she can cause her power to take effect instantly; we have a canon example in the manga of a level 1 power user that has to struggle for quite some time before he can produce any measurable effect with his electromaster ability.

Originally Posted by CrazyPerson

D) All sorts of espers violate conservation of energy principles no matter what the level, I suppose a level 1 Uiharu can do so as well.

True; just saying that we may want to lower our expectations a little, in terms of how much control she should probably have over her ability.

Originally Posted by CrazyPerson

(Entropic equalization is probably not the right phrase to use here. Entropy tends towards the maximum and doesn't usually equalize to something unless you're talking about a closed system.)

I was talking about a closed system, actually. Another way to think of her power might be to say that she has the power to create a perfect, thermodynamically closed system within the bounds of her AIM. I guess i'm attacking the 'entropy' idea from a different tack than the folks who want to think of it as 'entropy' control.' I debated whether or not to say 'thermodynamic equalization' instead; ah well...

Originally Posted by CrazyPerson

Again, if you mess with entropy, you get all sorts of wacky things like objects not feeling like they're at the appropriate temperatures. Haruue reaches into the box of tayaki, touches it and immediately sense that it's still very warm. If Uiharu's messing with entropy rates, the tayaki would need to be out of the box, then Haruue would feel as though the tayaki suddenly heated up. (When actually, heat transfer resumes due to entropy rates resuming normal).

It is possible that Uiharu stopped using her power before she offered the box to Haruue, though. The Taiyaki would not have had a chance to noticeably change in temperature. Perhaps exposing living organisms to her power has undesirable effects... though that would run directly counter to Kuroko's assertion that Uiharu's power is useless for getting her out of dangerous situations.

Originally Posted by CrazyPerson

If she only has partial control over the change in entropy like you suggest, then Uiharu can't maintain any object at a constant temperature. Since an object is giving off heat, entropy of the object is increasing, the total heat must be decreasing.

I'm actually suggesting that, if it were that sort of power, Uiharu would have almost no control over it; she would either be using her power at maximum strength, or not at all. I'm also suggesting that she very low 'threshold,' in terms of how far from 'ambient' a system can be before her power will totally fail to isolate it.

Originally Posted by CrazyPerson

Last nail in the "entropy control" theory: If you can control entropy, a whole series of better abilities would result if she had that power. <snip GOD MODE UIHARU! RAR!>

Yeah, complex, gradient control over the concept of 'entropy' would be pretty game-breaking - but it seems to be that ultimately, any power user that reaches 'level 6' will immediately discover the grand unification theory and will be able to cause any effect with their power, regardless of what their original power was. 'Entropy Control' would probably be the ideal power for a 'Level 6' experiment. I would say, however, that 'System Isolation' as an 'entropy-related' power could probably be kept to somewhat usable level until level 6.

Originally Posted by CrazyPerson

((PS: I'm also dreadfully afraid that the author will come out and say "Uiharu can control entropy, her effects just aren't consistent because I didn't research properly." and he would be completely in the right and all my thinking would be wrong.))

Unless Uiharu suddenly becomes extremely important in the light novels, her power will probably never be revisited, so no worries.

Originally Posted by CrazyPerson

((PPS: Entropy control suddenly just became an awesome idea for a power... but you'd have to get the effects right, and that would be tricky.))

Indeed...