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marvel - How can Ant-Man ride Anthony?


In the recently released Ant-Man movie, we are told the tale of how Hank Pym created a way to allow for the (partial) removal of the space between atoms to allow people to shrink object or themselves. We are also told that when an object, be it person or otherwise, is shrunk, that they retain their mass, thus their density increases.


My question is this: If Ant-Man was able to use his increased density to deliver powerful punches from his shrunk form, how was he able to ride Anthony (see picture)


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or run up the barrel of this pistol without causing the assaltant to drop it?


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Anything from the movie I might have missed or any interviews that address this would help greatly.




Answer



The short answer: We don't know. It's never been explained in the MCU exactly how the Pym particles affect the mass of the objects under their influence. Out-of-universe, that's because the physics simply doesn't work.


The most logical assumption: In-universe, there is one thing that we can lean on to help maintain our suspension of disbelief: plausible oversimplification.


Put simply, Pym's statements aren't a comprehensive overview of the technology, they're an off-handed remark from an expert to a layman. "It shrinks the distance between atoms" could be literally the truth, but it's probably more like saying that my computer "is powered by lightning." Most scientific and mechanical principles are explained using phrases that aren't literally true: cars don't actually "burn gasoline" (they maintain a self-sustaining series of miniature explosions), space doesn't actually "suck the air" out of an airlock (the air expands rapidly into the lower-density volume of empty space), and nuclear bombs don't actually "split" atoms in half (they use free neutrons to break up the particles within atomic nuclei).


It's possible (frankly I think it's all but certain) that the Pym particles have a MUCH more complicated effect than simply pulling atoms closer together. They probably affect the vibration of superstrings to alter the very structure of matter, or something. We're not witnessing a simple reduction of size, we're witnessing a new branch of physics.


Regardless of any off-handed comments made by Hank Pym to a stranger, we can logically assume that Pym particles act in very complex and totally unexpected ways. Evidently, the reduction in mass with retention of strength is just one of the unexpected phenomena associated with Pym's discovery, a side effect of whatever physical process the Pym particles are instigating.


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