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From: peter@baylor.UUCP (Peter da Silva)
Newsgroups: net.sf-lovers,net.tv
Subject: Re: Inconsistency in "The Fantastic Voyage"???
Message-ID: <395@baylor.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 14-Aug-85 12:48:47 EDT
Article-I.D.: baylor.395
Posted: Wed Aug 14 12:48:47 1985
Date-Received: Sun, 18-Aug-85 03:17:01 EDT
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Xref: watmath net.sf-lovers:9535 net.tv:3162

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