What's Missing: Loss of Strength

[Tiedefender]

Originally Posted by Mathai

Energy is probably the wrong word, and I think the phrase 'Intelligently paired down' describes what I mean pretty accurately. Having no real world scientific knowledge beyond what I remember from schooling and me attempting to ration it out. Especially since this is all in the realm of fantastic and unproven science, I give myself a little leeway on the exacts. As long as someone like yourself doesn't present compelling counter arguments like you have, of course.

My thinking is basically this. Like you theorized before, the atomic mass of a person can be dissipated into the atmosphere as a result of the outside influence. Where we start with a regular sized human that has had a changing element of energy applied, it can end then be split between a reduced version of that human and the rest of the matter dissipated into the surroundings. Much like a pot of water with tea bags, when the energy in a stove fire is applied, results in a pot of tea and a cloud of steam. The person becomes the tea, their lost height the steam. This could explain how they can eventually return to normal size later on, if possible.

My theory was that for such a massive and controlled change as shrinking, the energy source could be the person's body. I was imagining the energy released by an atomic weapon much like I think you were describing would be released by converting that much mass...But I counter that who's to say such a massive science bending transformation that also requires immense control so as to not have the same effect as those failed Ant Man movie experiments does NOT safely harness that level of energy in order to go properly? (Well...I suppose Prof_Sai is who, as you are way smarter on this subject that I am )

This reminds me of the Star Wars Vs Star Trek debates concerning how Phasers work. As they can vaporize a person with out huge quantities of energy being released. Only in this case, how does a person lose mass quickly without blowing up a city.

one idea came to mind about this some time ago. It involves electrostatic force. Say a person shrinks and retains their mass. Normally one would expect them to generate much more pressure on their feet the smaller they get. But what if this electrostatic force increases in proportion to the shrinking? It could cause enough repulsive force to make them feel lighter. They could keep their strength but objects could be so big that they couldn't manipulate them.

Another thing that could happen is having the mass and energy shunted into another dimension. They would lose the mass and energy but it would be safely directed some place safe. Maybe this could even allow them to think normally if the mass of the brain in the alternate dimension is still connected to brain in the body. Then they could be both lighter and weaker.