Fairy size-shifting vs superscience

Ok guys let's start a stupid comparison

Lately I found this article about the superscience of superhero as we know size-changing is a among the common super powers and how it raises the eternal question abut the square cube-law. The author of this article try to answer to the question of how works super powers (even if he quotes mainly Marvel it applies to any comics book universe) by using quantum mechanics to formulate his stubborn atom theory. Why I'm talking about that in the general discussion section of the forum it's because we have the official explanation of how fairies change their size . It's Gregole's original idea and formulated by the missing TheQuantumMechanic who was a talented expert.

The goal of this discussion is to express your opinion about how these two fictional explanations tried to resolve the question on size-changing ability. The main objective is neither to change the official Felarya one nor to know which is the best or the most popular but to discuss on their validity or believability on the subject of size-changing by exposing constructive points.

I prefer GREGOLE's.

"Stubborn atoms" don't explain size-changing. He said that the mass increases, and that brings his whole explanation down. The cross-section increases, the area increases, the mass increases- it's exactly the same as if nothing had happened and we were just making the superhero or fairy bigger, except now we've got atoms whose mass is superior to that recommended by their subatomic makeup- isn't atomic theory wonderful? And this happens without any unstability at all, hell, it's so healthy that you can probably look like a supermodel while having this stuff running inside your guts, and no one can even tell!

Directly increasing the interatomic distance and bond energy will also nuke your ability to breathe, not to mention that it'll completely scramble the chemical reactions that take place in your cells and the temperatura range that they are optimal for. You can yell zero point energy all you want, but it's not going to change anything.


GREGOLE's theory, on the other hand, makes a good job. It used to have a caveat, in that giant fairies still had a fixed hydrodynamic size, but it's since been removed... so right now, it works pretty peachy. Does raise a few questions, though, as to why fairies have limits to their "real size", why is it they are 120 feet tall but no bigger, or 3 inches but no smaller.

Then again, once you bring the atomic theory into the mix, GREGOLE's has to supersede it. Otherwise, fairies would have a fixed atomic size- and would need to scale everything to that size relative to themselves before being able to digest it- or be digested by it. In fact, their size relative to oxygen molecules would make it a bad idea to breathe at any size other than their real size. That stuff's always a problem.

Stabs wrote:

I prefer GREGOLE's.

"Stubborn atoms" don't explain size-changing. He said that the mass increases, and that brings his whole explanation down. The cross-section increases, the area increases, the mass increases- it's exactly the same as if nothing had happened and we were just making the superhero or fairy bigger, except now we've got atoms whose mass is superior to that recommended by their subatomic makeup- isn't atomic theory wonderful? And this happens without any unstability at all, hell, it's so healthy that you can probably look like a supermodel while having this stuff running inside your guts, and no one can even tell!

Directly increasing the interatomic distance and bond energy will also nuke your ability to breathe, not to mention that it'll completely scramble the chemical reactions that take place in your cells and the temperatura range that they are optimal for. You can yell zero point energy all you want, but it's not going to change anything.


GREGOLE's theory, on the other hand, makes a good job. It used to have a caveat, in that giant fairies still had a fixed hydrodynamic size, but it's since been removed... so right now, it works pretty peachy. Does raise a few questions, though, as to why fairies have limits to their "real size", why is it they are 120 feet tall but no bigger, or 3 inches but no smaller.

Then again, once you bring the atomic theory into the mix, GREGOLE's has to supersede it. Otherwise, fairies would have a fixed atomic size- and would need to scale everything to that size relative to themselves before being able to digest it- or be digested by it. In fact, their size relative to oxygen molecules would make it a bad idea to breathe at any size other than their real size. That stuff's always a problem.

Thank you Stabs I knew I could count on you

The only two superheroes I remember having shrinking powers are The Wasp in Marvel, whom I thought it was some kind of magic, and The Atom in DC, whom it's explicitly sited as superscience because Ray Palmer is a physicist.

I've always envisioned that the way they work, from their perspective, nothing changes, with the exception that everything around them is now bigger/smaller. Meanwhile, everything else can interact with them according to the size in change. So... I guess in layman's terms, from their perspective, their mass is the same, but from everything else's perspective, their mass changed, which is why they can't be interacted with the same way. How that would work I have no clue, but then again, science in comic books may as well be another brand of magic.

Shady Knight wrote:

I've always envisioned that the way they work, from their perspective, nothing changes, with the exception that everything around them is now bigger/smaller. Meanwhile, everything else can interact with them according to the size in change. So... I guess in layman's terms, from their perspective, their mass is the same, but from everything else's perspective, their mass changed, which is why they can't be interacted with the same way. How that would work I have no clue, but then again, science in comic books may as well be another brand of magic.

You're talking about the superhero you quoted as example of Felaryan fairies ?

I suppose? I'm trying to come up with something that fits both how no matter how big or small they are, they don't suffer some form of repercussions. I know that in JLA Act of God, The Atom's belt stopped working, so Ray Palmer volunteered for an experiment that'd help him get his powers back, and while he was successfully shrunk, normal talking voice was now too loud for him. Though Linkara brought up that if that's the case, then he should choke because air molecules are now too large for his lungs, but that's beside the point.

Really, I think Casey's explanation of some form of dimensional scaling works and how a fairy says that she's always at her normal size is sound. Basically, a more simple way I could explain, from the perspective of fairies or size-changing superheroes, they do not change size, everything else around them did, and from the perspective of a third-party witness, the fairy or superhero is the one who changed size. Essentially, it's as if the person was at its normal size, but is not in a much bigger environment, so to them, jumping off the lowest leaf off a potted plant onto the table would be like jumping down from the top of a tree and onto the ground.

Not sure if that makes my explanation clearer or not. I'm pretty sure The Atom has worked around this several times, but Ray Palmer is a physicist and I'm not, he's probably using some workarounds to give himself perks when he's tiny.

Sorry to misinterpret your words because I was seeing size-changing for fairies in a similar ways.

Thanks for the new points you brought they are very instructive