Skip to main content

marvel - How does Ant-Man shrink?


Do the comics or the film specify if Ant-Man's suit works by:



  • Shrinking the volume of all of his atoms (including subatomic particles) proportionately - possibly shrinking their mass as well, or

  • Shrinking the space between the atoms while the atoms themselves retain the same size, or

  • Shrinking the space inside the atoms while the subatomic particles retain the same size, or


  • A combination of the above?


The first option departs most from the known laws of physics and also could prevent Ant Man interacting with atoms and particles of normal size (i.e., breathing, eating, seeing, etc.).



Answer



The Cinematic Universe appears to be using a slightly different technique than the mainstream comics universe, so it depends which Ant-Man you're talking about.


Earth-616


In the comics, Hank Pym's Pym Particles work by interfacing with a parallel dimension (the Kosmos dimension) and shifting mass back and forth between the two dimensions. When an object shrinks here, it's extra mass is shunted off to Kosmos, and when it grows here, the extra mass is pull in from Kosmos.


Earth-199999 (MCU)


Fairly early on in Ant-Man, Hank explains that his Pym Particles work by "changing the distance between atoms" in the affected substance, basically your bullet point #2. Since there is no loss of mass, the object in question also becomes more dense as a result of the shrinking.




On a side-note, there's a bit of a problem with MCU explanation. According to the movie, it's possible for Pym Particles to shrink a subject down to the level where quantum effects become significantly meaningful. This would require getting down to around the size of a single atom, or possibly smaller, depending on how "quantum" you wanted to get. Obviously, it's impossible to move two separate atoms closer together than the size of one atom, as this would violate the Pauli exclusion principle. (When this kind of thing happens in the real world, e.g. due to extreme gravity, it's called "degenerate matter" and all kinds of major nuclear changes happen to the matter, and it no longer looks or acts like it's original form.)


It's likely that this is just your typical "close enough for the masses" movie physics, but it's also possible, based on some hints from Marvel about the upcoming Doctor Strange movie, that Pym Particles are more involved than even Hank knows about.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

harry potter - Do the Kwikspell courses work?

In Harry Potter we are introduced to Kwikspell course in The Chamber of Secrets (and never hear about it again). We see Filch taking courses, presumably by mail. The descriptions of Kwikspell make me think it is for people who are weak in magic (kind of like how Neville was supposed to be when he was younger), but had magic in them nonetheless. However, Ron's comments later in the chapter make it sound like it is mainly for Squibs to learn magic. However, it is strongly implied through out all the books that Squibs are essentially Muggles, and will never be able to do magic. How then is a Kwikspell course supposed to work? Do we have any information to know if it works at all? Is it a scam? An answer from any level of canon is welcome. Answer Kwikspell courses are (probably) useful to some wizards, but not to squibs. The Kwikspell course literature comes with two testimonials. Madam Z. Nettles of Topsham writes: ‘I had no memory for incantations and my potions were a family joke...
Post a Comment
Read more

futurama - How much time is lost in 'Time Keeps on Slippin''

In time Keeps on Slippin' , Farnsworth creates a basketball team which he matures by abusing Chronitons. This leads to time skipping forward by random, but ever increasing amounts. How much time was skipped in this way? Answer Unfortunately, I don't think a good estimate can be made for this, for two reasons: Many of the time skips move forward by an indeterminate amount of time. At one point, the Professor mentions localized regions of space skipping forward much more than others. We then see two young boys on the street below complaining about having to pay social security, only to suddenly become senior citizens and start complaining about wanting their money. Thus, each individual could have experienced a different amount of time skippage.
Post a Comment
Read more

star wars - What "exactly" happens when someone turns to the Dark Side?

When I saw the original Star Wars saga as a kid, the concept of the Dark Side imprinted in me was quite simple. You did a bad thing, so you're a bad person so you go to the Dark Side and keep doing bad things. Now, obviously this doesn't hold true in reality. In my mind it is perfectly reasonable for Luke to kill the Emperor and Vader and then just flee the Death Star and rejoin the Alliance. After all they are at war, those are enemy officers that have captured him and are taunting him by threatening with death of all loved ones and the whole operation was intended to kill the Emperor anyway. The same would hold true for Anakin. He could have killed Mace Windu to save the Chancellor and Padme but that doesn't mean he's going to then go mad and kill all Jedis including children. It doesn't add up from a merely psychological point of view. He had a set of objectives and that made him want to keep the Chancellor alive (quite valid by the way, Mace Windu is quite clums...
Post a Comment
Read more

star trek - Warning regarding forward saucer section in Nemesis?

In Star Trek: Nemesis , just before the Enterprise rams into the Scimitar, Picard sends a text message from his captain's chair arm pad to Troi — who is manning the helm in lieu of the crewman who was just blown out through what was once the view screen — indicating that she should put full impulse on standby. (Literally, if you watch the scene closely, Troi's console prefaces the order with "TXT MSG" !) My question is: Did Picard also somehow warn crew members in the forward saucer section about what was about to happen? The ramming of the Scimitar was a heat of the moment decision. Considering that he also resorted to calling the auto-destruct sequence shortly after (which ended up being offline), he probably was of the mindset that any losses would be acceptable in order to hault Shinzon's march to Earth. Still, I'm curious. Answer The original script indicates that he called for the crew to " brace for impact ". Whether that call (or the comma...
Post a Comment
Read more