"Some kinds of mana pass right through each other. Some are attracted inverse-linear, or inverse-cube. Some repel each other instead of attracting."
He flicks his finger again, and another orb of light starts orbiting the star on his finger, at a wider distance, but circling faster.
"But in terms of finding another kind of mana attracted to my finger's mana inverse-square, but with a different constant -- well, there you go. Can you say to me whether the constant of attraction, analogous to gravitation, must be higher for the new mana-bundle, or lower?"
There's now a new D-type of stable mana that's orbiting the A-type mana radiating from his finger, along with its own B-type rider to make it be visible to the naked eye. The way the D-type mana holds its bound B-type mana is different from how the C-type mana keeps its own B-type mana along for the ride; but possibly that is not the most important thing for Opalyn to be thinking about right now.
The earlier orb (C+B) is circling at a distance of a few inches, the width of a human hand or so, and circling once per four seconds. The new orb (D+B) orbits two hand-widths away from his finger, but completes an orbit every three seconds, outpacing the first despite the greater distance.
