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Originally Posted by Tiedefender
Trying to grapple with all the size and mass/weight changes are difficult enough on their own. Though a significant size change would potentially make an object like clothes feel heavier. Or may make it to unwieldy to move properly. This would also depend on how the rules of the shrinking work. Specifically how much strength would a person still have after being shrunk in size.
One thing I would like to add to the mix is the shrinking speed. What if you shrank so fast that your clothes landed on you?
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Since it is all theoretical stuff, I completely agree. Just like there are shrink rays, spells, and various forms of potions that can trigger the reduction, with outcomes varied from minimal size loss to microscopic, the results can have a non visible effect as well. Just like how ants and spiders have greater strength than their size would imply, a reduced human could wind up with diminished strength in comparison to their regular sized self.
Assuming the shrink is a 'poof' style, or fast enough to be over before the person can react, then the clothes would most likely waft down slowly and land on top. Its not a matter of gravity for the person who isn't falling but changing for the smaller. But the unaffected clothes definitely still must obey gravity. So if the shrink is faster than the speed at which a held shirt would fall to the ground in normal circumstances, then it would have to catch up to the shrunken person.
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Originally Posted by Prof_Sai
Here is a thought: When people shrink, the mass has to go somewhere. So what if some of it gets imbedded in the clothing, making it super heavy? It could become like the led aprons they use for taking X-Rays.
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That sounds plausible. It would be enough to disrupt the size to perceived weight scale you've been using in a way that explains where the mass all goes. It's been converted to another form, which might also result in the visual effects of whatever system is being used. I.e. the light that encircles the subject from a spell or ray, or maybe a steamy haze encircling the now smaller person. Some of that energy has been absorbed into the first available medium, their clothes.
It might also produce other effects that are why the clothing is impossible to escape, like a temporary magentic attraction that isn't usually present. It would also account for the greatly different effects from one media to another. A potion would probably not induce shrinking in the same way as a topical effect or something more electric.
One of my favorite theories about this is that such a significant change in size has got to expend a massive amount of energy. This process has got to expend an amount of energy equivalent to the amount of size reduction. Shrinking someone one foot requires one foot of energy in the most basic terms. I propose that shrinking somebody is harnessing the energy in the body to fuel the change. In some not very scientific terms, five feet of person is shrinking to one foot because four feet of person is being burned away in the procedure. Much like dieting and exercise combined burns fat away, a shrinking system uses up bone/muscle/hair/all the parts of the person until they are in their reduced state.