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Unread 01-14-2021   #3
Prof_Sai
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Join Date: Aug 2005
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Re: What's Missing: Loss of Strength

The standard calculation is:

X linear size reduction.
X^2 strength reduction.
X^3 weight reduction.

So other objects feel heavier, but we ourselves feel light and springy. We can run surprisingly fast - moving our legs about as fast as you can wiggle your fingers. General abilities would be like an animal of similar size. You wouldn't be able to trap a mouse by throwing a blouse over it. Most of the weight of the shirt would be on the ground, not the mouse.

Of course in fantasy you can make any rules you want for your specific shrinking mechanism. Getting trapped in your clothes is more likely to be about getting lost. Of course if she was carrying something heavy at the time, that could pin her down.

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For Viz's example of Wonder Woman lifting a penny:

- A penny weighs 2.5 grams.
- Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot) is 70", so let's use a 70x size change.
- If we enlarge a penny by 70 cubed (343000x), it weighs 875.5 kilograms..
- but if instead we shrink Gal Gadot to one inch we use the square, not the cube to calculate her new strength: 70 squared equals 12250x, so she is that much weaker, not 343000x weaker.
- So the tiny actress feels the penny as if it weighed 12.25 Kg or 27 pounds.. So it's a struggle, but she could lift it without visual effects. And Wonder Woman could easily throw it in the evil shrinker's face.

Last edited by Prof_Sai; 01-14-2021 at 02:14 PM.
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