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From: sdl@mitre-bedford
Newsgroups: net.sf-lovers
Subject: Re: Inconsistency in "The Fantastic Voyage"???
Message-ID: <3290@topaz.RUTGERS.EDU>
Date: Thu, 15-Aug-85 09:58:42 EDT
Article-I.D.: topaz.3290
Posted: Thu Aug 15 09:58:42 1985
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Organization: Rutgers Univ., New Brunswick, N.J.
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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
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