kdale@minet-vhn-em.arpa (08/18/85)
From: Keith Dale <kdale@minet-vhn-em.arpa> Steven Litvintchouk <sdl@mitre-bedford> wrote: >The problem with "Fantastic Voyage" is that they could never figure >out a consistent relationship between the principle of >miniaturization and the conservation of mass. How about this as an attempt at an explanation? As a preface, though, if you're going to swallow the fact of miniaturization, you're going to have to accept some pretty flaky assumptions (I mean, it's got to be on a par with "Beam me up, Scotty!"). 1. The miniaturization process begins with setting up an homogeneous field around the object(s) to be mini'ed. What kind of field? Well, a field that reacts in equal force or amount to all points within it. So, Flaky Assumption #1 is: this field does not behave according to the inverse square rule. 2. Next, an effect of the field is to reduce energy within it's influence by directly converting mass to energy. The energy released is used to sustain the field. Due to the nature of the field, no whole unit of matter is converted to energy, but just a part. The nature of the unit of matter is not changed (F.A.#2) and it reduces size in proportion to the amount of matter that was converted. 3. The mass conversion acts on all matter within the field equally, so everything is reduced by the same amount. 4. When you're as small as you want to be, turn off the field. 5. Since an abnormality in the Grand Scheme of Things exists (a proton that *is* a proton, but doesn't have the mass that a proton *should*), physical laws begin to reassert themselves as soon as the field is shut off. All miniaturized matter attempts to regain normality by gaining energy that will be somehow converted back to matter. How? I don't know - I've never had the chance to interview a scrawny proton before. This is definitely F.A.#3. 6. Assuming that 5. will occur, then we might as well assume that the rate of energy reconversion is rapid but requires a threshhold point to be reached before matter "grows". Where does this matter get the energy? From the immediate surroundings and according to the inverse square rule; however, this would wreak havoc with those surroundings, not to mention the patient! So: 7. Another field is set up that provides a source of energy that is specific to miniaturized matter (F.A.#4). Surrounding normal matter is not affected, and you have a definite time limit on how long you can stay small before the mass you're gaining becomes a problem (say, for the patient that you're "inhabiting"). When you exit the patient, the juice can be turned up so that you grow more rapidly. There, that's it. Please realize, folks, that this isn't meant to be an outline on How to Get Small. It's just one way of explaning miniaturization and the conservation of energy, given that something as improbable as miniaturization is required, in a manner that seems logical. Turn the flames on and have fun with it! BTW, the whole time I was writing this, a line from ST2:TWoK kept screaming in my head - "Jim, you proceed from a false assumption." Don't I know it! Keith M. Dale (kdale@minet-vhn-em) BBN Comm Corp Stuttgart, W. Germany
crm@duke.UUCP (Charlie Martin) (08/20/85)
In article <3323@topaz.RUTGERS.EDU> kdale@minet-vhn-em.arpa writes: >From: Keith Dale <kdale@minet-vhn-em.arpa> > >Steven Litvintchouk <sdl@mitre-bedford> wrote: >>The problem with "Fantastic Voyage" is that they could never figure >>out a consistent relationship between the principle of >>miniaturization and the conservation of mass. > >How about this as an attempt at an explanation? The book explanation was that the ``field'' altered the relationship of the people (ship, rubber suits etc) to the space in which they were embedded, so that they appeared to be smaller, with less mass etc. (It's the old rotate-them-through-hyperspace trick, 99!) That seems whole lot easier to buy than this ``convert them to energy so they're smaller'' idea. -- Charlie Martin (...mcnc!duke!crm)
draughn@iitcs.UUCP (Mark Draughn) (08/28/85)
In article <3323@topaz.RUTGERS.EDU> kdale@minet-vhn-em.arpa writes: >How about this as an attempt at an explanation? As a preface, though, >if you're going to swallow the fact of miniaturization, you're going >to have to accept some pretty flaky assumptions (I mean, it's got to >be on a par with "Beam me up, Scotty!"). > > 1. The miniaturization process begins with setting up an > homogeneous field around the object(s) to be mini'ed. > What kind of field? Well, a field that reacts in equal > force or amount to all points within it. So, Flaky > Assumption #1 is: this field does not behave according > to the inverse square rule. > > 2. Next, an effect of the field is to reduce energy within > it's influence by directly converting mass to energy. The > energy released is used to sustain the field. Due to the > nature of the field, no whole unit of matter is converted > to energy, but just a part. The nature of the unit > of matter is not changed (F.A.#2) and it reduces size in > proportion to the amount of matter that was converted. [...] When the matter "attempts" to regain it's mass (after a sort of threshold period) it has to draw in erergy. So... > 7. Another field is set up that provides a source of energy that > is specific to miniaturized matter (F.A.#4). Surrounding normal > matter is not affected, and you have a definite time limit on > how long you can stay small before the mass you're gaining > becomes a problem (say, for the patient that you're "inhabiting"). > When you exit the patient, the juice can be turned up so that > you grow more rapidly. There, that's it. Problem: When the mass is converted to energy, you'd get an awful lot of energy. E = m*c^2 get's real big for a person-size mass. I'm not saying this is a big problem though, since it can be hand-waved away by storing the energy in the field. Problem: If the particles lose mass without losing charge, I think the electron clouds will go nuts. With less inertia, things will move much faster. I think we have to do some more hand-waving and say that the charge is also reduced. We probably also have to say this about the other forces so that the nucleus holds together. (Gravity could probably still be ignored, because it is so weak.) Problem: External influences can play havoc with the miniturized objects. Molecules near the fringes of the field will be torn apart by the many-times-greater charge from the full-size atoms. Also, what about photons? It seems to me that photons from the outside world would blast the electron clouds right off the mini-atoms rather than just pop the electrons up a few orbitals. I think we must also stipulate that forces and massless particles from the outside world undergo an automatic reduction in strength or energy when they cross through the field. By the way, the field must be pegged to all particles with mass that were in the original shrinking field because it must be flexible, yet not spread to surrounding particles. What do you think? Mark Draughn