ugzannin@sunybcs.UUCP (Adrian Zannin) (08/12/85)
Just the other night I watched the movie "The Fantastic Voyage". I had seen
it several years ago and I had also read the book back when I was in 6th grade,
so I really didn't catch everything the first time through. Now, almost 10
years later, I finally got to see it again and found what may be a mistake on
Isaac Asimov's part.
Remember when the submarine ran into a problem and lost some air out of the
ballast tanks? The solution was to push the sub's snorkel through the wall of
an alveoli in the guy's lung and get some air when he inhaled. Well, wouldn't
there be a problem with the size of the air molecules? I mean, when the sub
was miniaturized, the air inside it was shrunken also. Now, wouldn't there be
at least a bogus air pressure reading when they fill up with normal air that
hasn't been miniaturized? For that matter, would the air molecules even be
able to fit into the sub?
Please reply via e-mail, as I don't read this newsgroup too often. Thanks...
--
Adrian Zannin
..{bbncca,decvax,dual,rocksvax,watmath,sbcs}!sunybcs!ugzannin
CSNET: ugzannin@Buffalo.CSNET
ARPANET: ugzannin%Buffalo@csnet-relay.ARPA
BITNET: ugzannin@sunybcs.BITNETpeter@baylor.UUCP (Peter da Silva) (08/14/85)
Oh boy. More Fantastic Voyage flames! > Just the other night I watched the movie "The Fantastic Voyage". I had seen > it several years ago and I had also read the book back when I was in 6th grade, > so I really didn't catch everything the first time through. Now, almost 10 > years later, I finally got to see it again and found what may be a mistake on > Isaac Asimov's part. Asimov didn't write the screenplay. He wrote the book based on the screenplay. Read the book and you'll see the answer to the following question is... > Remember when the submarine ran into a problem and lost some air out of the > ballast tanks? The solution was to push the sub's snorkel through the wall of > an alveoli in the guy's lung and get some air when he inhaled. Well, wouldn't > there be a problem with the size of the air molecules? I mean, when the sub > was miniaturized, the air inside it was shrunken also. Now, wouldn't there be > at least a bogus air pressure reading when they fill up with normal air that > hasn't been miniaturized? For that matter, would the air molecules even be > able to fit into the sub? In the book they used the miniaturiser on the air in the guy's lungs, and at one point someone comments that "we're pullinzVg air from the room straight through his tissues", or words to that effect. The question then becomes why they bothered with the lungs in the first place, but don't blame Asimov for that one. There's a worse problem with the movie: they leave the spaceship inside the guy! But don't blame asimov. He didn't have anything to do with it. -- Peter da Silva (the mad Australian) UUCP: ...!shell!neuro1!{hyd-ptd,baylor,datafac}!peter MCI: PDASILVA; CIS: 70216,1076
sdl@mitre-bedford (08/15/85)
From: sdl@Mitre-Bedford >>Well, wouldn't there be a problem with the size of the air molecules? >>I mean, when the sub was miniaturized, the air inside it was shrunken >>also. Now, wouldn't there be at least a bogus air pressure reading >>when they fill up with normal air that hasn't been miniaturized? For >>that matter, would the air molecules even be able to fit into the sub? There were a lot of such inconsistencies in the movie that Asimov tried to patch in the book. In this case, Asimov wrote that the submarine had a portable miniaturizer on board, and was miniaturizing the air as it came in. Of course, this means that the volume of air before miniaturization was sufficient to fill a normal-sized submarine's tanks; sucking in this much air through the patient's lungs should have had a noticeable effect. Another mistake occurred near the end of the movie, when the submarine is ingested/destroyed by the white corpuscles. Even destroyed, the fragments of the submarine after deminiaturization would be the same mass (and comparable volume) of the original submarine, which should have exploded the patient from within. Asimov tried to patch this one in the book, by having the white corpuscles follow the explorers out of the patient's body. 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. Steven Litvintchouk (617)271-7753 ARPA: sdl@mitre-bedford UUCP: ...{allegra,decvax,genrad,ihnp4,philabs,security,utzoo}!linus!bccvax!sdl
brad@looking.UUCP (Brad Templeton) (08/16/85)
If you think it's bad leaving a submarine inside the guy (people say that the white cell left the body with the crew) there is something far worse. The miniturization is done as a two stage process. First the sub is shrunk, and then it's put in a 50 gallon syringe which is further shrunk. When that expands, boy is the patient going to need to go to the bathroom like you wouldn't believe! -- Brad Templeton, Looking Glass Software Ltd. - Waterloo, Ontario 519/884-7473
peter@baylor.UUCP (Peter da Silva) (08/19/85)
> The miniturization is done as a two stage process. First the sub is shrunk, > and then it's put in a 50 gallon syringe which is further shrunk. When > that expands, boy is the patient going to need to go to the bathroom like you > wouldn't believe! Oogh, I missed this one. The operative word is "OUCH". -- Peter (Made in Australia) da Silva UUCP: ...!shell!neuro1!{hyd-ptd,baylor,datafac}!peter MCI: PDASILVA; CIS: 70216,1076
shanks@teneron.UUCP (Dave Shanks) (08/20/85)
In article <327@looking.UUCP> brad@looking.UUCP (Brad Templeton) writes: >The miniturization is done as a two stage process. First the sub is shrunk, >and then it's put in a 50 gallon syringe which is further shrunk. When >that expands, boy is the patient going to need to go to the bathroom like you >wouldn't believe! This could be solved by starting out with a real syringe of saline solution and expanding it to 50 gallons before putting the sub in. As I recall (from the book) the miniturizer could work in either direction. -- Dave Shanks ..!tektronix!reed!teneron!shanks Teneron Corp. 6700 SW 105th Suite 200 Beaverton, OR 97005 (503) 646-1599