QUOTE (Akhkharu @ Oct 6 2009, 01:37 PM)

ok, I was being a bit silly with that example. What I am looking for is a translation of force resisted verus strength or body. For a better example, there are rules for lifting & carrying that say for each point of strength you can lift 10kgs without a test, then can increase that with strength + body test. Now say there is a wall with a piston on the back and some metahuman has to hold it back. How would I determine how much force the metahuman can hold back without simply being pushed back or knocked down.
Same thing, convert the piston to a jack and determine how much weight it can lift. Things under pressure are pretty good at moving objects. If you figure a car weighs 3000 lbs and sits in contact with the ground on four patches of 6" x 7" tire, about 20 psi of air in the tires will be enough to drive on (probably not wise to do though.) Does this mean 20 psi is about Strength 30? I don't know, but if I had the wall with the piston, I would try to figure out what amount of weight the piston could lift and then make the PC lift that weight to hold back the wall. Figure small hydraulic jacks are rated to lift at least 2000 pounds. For $30 you can go to a hardware store and get a 12 ton jack.
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Another example to help clarify: Some fool at the stuffer shack took up 2 parking spaces, so you get your troll buddy to go over and push the car sideways so you can get the good spot. With said troll's strength and body, will he be able to push the given weight of the car to make room or will he just look like an idiot while his feet slide in place?
I have had some real life experience with this one. It is hard to slide the vehicle sideways because of the friction, so it is usually easier to lift and slide one end at a time.

Figure 500-600 lbs is needed to be lifted. On snow or ice, it is a lot easier to slide the car sideways as there is less friction to overcome and no opposing lateral force.
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I don't imagine straight strength would do the trick because all the strength in the world wouldn't help if you can't stand your ground. The adept power rooting (SM p.179) states that the adept can become an immovable object and adds +1 body for knockdown tests. Wouldn't this also apply to being able to apply more force without being pushed back? At what point would rooting fail and the adept simply slide back anyway?
I hope this helps a bit, I think I added more questions than clarification...
You need to approach it like a Physics problem and apply force vectors. It is a bit tougher to figure out than just lifting vertically when the opposing force is lateral.